Continuous renal replacement therapy, or CRRT, is a kidney dialysis treatment. It provides a steady stream of renal replacement therapy for patients with acute kidney failure. Doctors typically use CRRT for patients in intensive care units, for...
The significance of acid-base balance in patients with advanced kidney disease was first appreciated in 1931 when D.M. Lyon et al. published a seminal paper in the "Lancet" titled "The Alkaline Treatment of Chronic Nephritis." Since that time,...
The kidneys, bean-shaped organs located on either side of the abdomen, have multiple functions. They are an essential part of the urinary system and help concentrate waste products into urine for excretion. They also produce necessary hormones,...
Regardless what type dialysis you're on, it's important to avoid the protein deprivation, wasting and anorexia that dog so many patients who have reached end-stage kidney disease. While specialists in renal nutrition do not speak to the...
Magnesium plays an important role in the body. It helps in the contraction and relaxation of muscles, the function of specific enzymes, the production and transport of energy and protein synthesis, according to MedlinePlus. People can procure...
Hematin (or panhematin) is an iron that acts as an enzyme inhibitor and comes from processing red blood cells. It's used to treat liver diseases such as acute jaundice. Hematin is processed as a dry powder and reconstituted with sterile water so...
Dialysis, also called renal replacement therapy is an artificial method of removing toxic waste products and excess fluid from the blood when the kidneys are unable to do so. Dialysis is usually performed in patients who have lost 85 to 90 percent...
Sticking to a renal diet year after year is difficult. Explaining why you are taking a pass on the lovely broccoli soup, stuffed squash, freshly squeezed orange juice, lentil soup or lasagna that your host carefully prepared can be awkward. It's...
Kidney cancer is a common form of cancer that originates in one or both kidneys. Renal cell carcinoma is the most common type of kidney cancer in adults. Symptoms of advanced kidney cancer include blood in the urine, fever, unexplained weight...
Venipuncture is a procedure that removes blood from a vein in the body, usually for testing but occasionally for treatment—for example, in the disease of iron overload called hemochromotasis. Venipuncture is also commonly used to place an...
Doctors who specialize in treating kidney disease in kids are called pediatric nephrologists. Not only are they specifically attuned to the particular diseases that affect kids, they also consider the effects that treatment and disease have on...
Dialysis is a life-saving treatment for patients who have reached end-stage disease and can no longer survive without some kind of renal replacement therapy. This treatment is imperfect, as it has a 33.6 percent survival rate after five years of...
The U.S. Renal Data System reports that 527,283 U.S. residents were treated for renal failure in 2007. The primary causes of renal failure were diabetes, hypertension, glomerular nephritis, cystic kidney disease and urological disease. Alkaline...
The kidneys perform several full-time jobs. In addition to removing wastes from your blood, they also regulate blood pressure, maintain healthy levels of potassium and phosphorus, and aid the maturation of red blood cells. As of 2011, there are no...
ESRD stands for end stage renal disease. More commonly, this is referred to as ESKD, or end stage kidney disease. End stage is the final stage of chronic kidney disease in which the kidneys are so scarred they can no longer support life without...
Two renal arteries supply blood to the right and the left kidneys. Partial or complete blockage of the renal arteries decreases blood flow to the kidneys and may lead to kidney damage. Clots usually originate in the heart and travel to the renal...
The kidneys have the important functions of excretion and regulation of water, minerals and organic compounds in the body. The kidneys remove solutes from the blood so that they may be excreted through the urine, thus, maintaining fluid and...
Lisinopril belongs to a category of medications called ACE inhibitors. ACE stands for angiotensin converting enzyme. According to Consumer Reports, this family of drugs is used by tens of millions of Americans to treat high blood pressure and...
Despite sophisticated advances in medicine, nearly 75 percent of the kidneys must be failing before blood tests will indicate that there is a problem, according to the "Human Anatomy & Physiology." The kidneys have the role of filtering toxins and...
EDTA is a chemical compound that's able to bind to certain compounds in the blood and remove them. EDTA therapy (also known as chelation) is commonly used to treat mercury and lead poisoning, but it has also gained use among some alternative...
Hyperkalemia is a condition in which potassium levels in blood are above normal levels. Although potassium is needed in the body for nerve and heart function, elevated levels in blood may cause health problems. It may cause abnormal heartbeats,...
Renal disease is a broad term used to describe failing kidneys. Renal disease can be acute or chronic. Modification of diet in renal disease, or MDRD, is essential to managing renal disease, increasing lifespan and minimizing complications from...
Renal or kidney failure is the condition in which the kidneys do not produce enough urine to get rid of the body's waste products. Healthy adults need to produce at least 400 ml of urine a day. When the kidneys suddenly produce less than this...
Polycystic kidney disease is a chronic kidney disease, that remains incurable as of 2011. Patients often experience renal failure and receive renal replacement therapy, typically dialysis or a transplant. Many nephrologists add fish oil to their...
Abnormal sodium levels in newborns can indicate an underlying medical condition. Infants who are sick or who display poor growth are at increased risk for sodium imbalance, according to the University of Iowa Children's Hospital. Sodium balance is...
The kidneys filter out nutrients we don't need, while balancing nutrients we do. According to the American Association of Kidney Patients or AAKP, a renal diet is low in sodium, potassium, phosphorous, protein and fluid. With so many restrictions,...
Cranberry tablets are commonly used to prevent urinary tract infections caused by Escherichia coli. Cranberry tablets prevent the E. coli from adhering to the walls of the bladder, thereby preventing the development of UTIs. However, cranberry...
Chelation is the process of removing heavy metals and other substances from the body using an amino acid known as EDTA, or ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. While it has been approved to treat heavy metal poisoning, EDTA is sometimes used...
Acute renal failure is a disorder in which the kidneys suddenly stop functioning, leading to the accumulation of nitrogenous wastes. Causes include autoimmune kidney disease, surgery, septic shock, dehydration, hypertension and other infections...
