Kidney dialysis, or hemodialysis, filters waste and excess fluid from the blood as a result of kidney failure and end-stage renal disease. Hemodialysis requires a surgically created access port such as a fistula, graft or catheter. The blood travels from this port, through a filtering process, then back into the body.
Access
A physician surgically creates one of three possible access ports: an arteriovenous (AV) fistula, an AVE graft, or a central venous catheter. Most patients receive an AV fistula; the direct connection of an artery to a vein because of fewer complications.
Vital Signs
Monitoring a patient's heart rate, blood pressure, and weight during hemodialysis indicates how much excess fluid should be removed, as well as how well the patient is tolerating the procedure.
Cycling
The dialysis technician or nurse connects the patient to the dialysis machine. Blood begins to cycle through the external tubing. An average adult has between 10 to 12 pints of blood. Even though all systemic blood is filtered before the process ends, only one pint is outside the body at any given time.
Filtering
As the blood circulates through the system, the dialysis solution pulls the waste and fluid from the blood through the microscopic holes of a semi-permeable membrane filter. The blood goes back into the body after the filtering process.
Monitoring
The dialysis machine constantly monitors blood flow, waste removal, pressure changes, temperature, dialysate mixture, toxins, clotting, leaks, and air trapping. Alarms ring when any of the above parameters falls out of specifications.
