Type of Surgery
Information
Last updated: 11/24/2009
The only alternative to dialysis for ESRD patients is a successful kidney transplant. However, demand for donor kidneys has traditionally far exceeded supply. As of March 1, 2003, there were 53,619 patients on the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS)...
waiting list for a kidney transplant, with an additional 2,405 waiting for a combination kidney and pancreas transplant. In the entire year of 2001, only 14,095 donors gave kidneys, according to UNOS.
For patients with diabetes, the number one cause of chronic kidney failure in adults, the best way to avoid ESRD and subsequent dialysis is to maintain tight control of blood glucose levels through diet, exercise, and medication. Controlling high blood pressure is also important.
Advertisement
This narrated collection of artist's images shows the anatomy of the kidney at the gross and microscopic levels. Kidney physiology is also explained which describes how blood is filtered by the kidney to produce urine.
Nurse working in a kidney dialysis unit. (Custom Medical Stock Photo. Reproduced by permission.)
Search
Other Information
In medicine, dialysis (from Greek "dialusis", meaning dissolution, "dia", meaning through, and "lusis", meaning loosening) is primarily used to provide an artificial replacement for lost kidney function (renal replacement therapy) due to renal failure. Dialysis may be used for very sick patients who have suddenly but temporarily, lost their kidney function (acute renal failure) or for quite stable patients who have permanently lost their kidney function (stage 5 chronic kidney disease). When healthy, the kidneys maintain the body's internal equilibrium of water and minerals (sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sulfate) and the kidneys remove from the blood the daily metabolic load of fixed hydrogen ions. The kidneys also function as a part of the endocrine system producing erythropoietin and 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol (calcitriol). Dialysis is an imperfect treatment to replace kidney function because it does not correct the endocrine functions of the kidney. Dialysis treatments replace some of these functions through diffusion (waste removal) and ultrafiltration (fluid removal).
Other Information
Circumcision is a controversial topic, because there is so much misinformation and emotion included as fact; the facts are fairly straightforward and there are some definite biological advantages to circumcision.
-Gerald McMorrow
Find a Qualified Specialist
Looking for a specialist?
Please enter your zip code.