Understanding Dialysis

Overview:
When you're healthy, your kidneys work to clean your blood. The kidneys rid blood of of toxins and waste that are then eliminated in urine. They also produce hormones that your body needs to maintain strong bones and healthy blood. When your kidneys quit working you will need to undergo dialysis on a regular basis if you do not get a kidney transplant immediately. Dialysis does the work your kidneys used to do artificially. Understanding dialysis will help motivate you to comply with your treatment schedule and diet restrictions.

Significance: Understanding dialysis is important in helping you to make lifestyle choices that will affect your health and well being. Dialysis is a lifeline for those people who have non-functioning kidneys. If you are a dialysis candidate or patient, understanding the way dialysis works and what choices you have is vital to your health.

Function: Dialysis--hemodialysis and peritoneal--does the work of the kidneys. You will get either a port in your arm or in your abdomen depending on the type of dialysis you are using and your blood will be transferred in small increments at a time into a machine called a dialyzer. A machine will filter out harmful waste and toxins, excess salt and fluid from your body just as your kidneys once did. Your blood will return to your body through the port, clean and free of waste and toxins.

Types: There are three types of dialysis: conventional hemodialysis, daily hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Hemodialysis usually happens at a dialysis center, a port in your upper arm or forearm provides access for hemodialysis. Peritoneal dialysis requires a surgeon to insert a thin tube into your abdomen; this allows you to do dialysis from home. For both hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis you will want to maintain your ideal body weight--but for hemodialysis, your diet will come with more restrictions and you'll need to more closely monitor your intake of salt, fluid and other nutrients. All three types of dialysis do the work of your kidneys for you when you can't.

Warning: Dialysis is a life saver, but it can create complications. Individuals undergoing dialysis can suffer from anemia--an insufficiency of red blood cells. This will leave you feeling tired and weak. Healthy kidneys secrete a hormone that helps stimulate red blood cell production. Anemia can be caused by dialysis or underlying kidney disease. It is important you monitor your fluid intake; patients on dialysis can overload their systems with fluid and cause life threatening conditions such as congestive heart failure and fluid in the lungs. Dialysis can cause many complications, so speak with your health care provider about a conclusive list of complications and risks.

Time: Hemodialysis--both conventional and daily--and peritoneal dialysis offer different dialysis schedules. Conventional hemodialysis requires treatments three times a week that last 3 to 5 hours while daily hemodialysis requires six treatments per week that last 2 hours. Peritoneal dialysis can be done in two ways--one will require four to five 30 to 40 minute sessions daily the other will require you to be hooked up to dialysis for 10 to 12 hours at night.