Kidney Disease Support

Chronic or Acute renal diseases can lead to renal failure. This failure may be complete or partial. Such patients require different kind of measures to support them and to maintain the normal physiological processes.

Hamemolysis:

Haemodialysis has saved many a kidney patient's life. It is very useful in chronic renal failure. It is useful when the uremia has become very severe An arteri venous fistula should be formed in the forearm, when the plasma creatinine is consistently above 600 micromol/ l .

Haemodialysis is carried out for 4-6 hours 3 times in a week, and many patients are trained to do it themselves. Within the first 6 weeks, there is a gradual reduction of the Uremic symptoms. Plasma creatinine and blood urea, do not return to normal, and anemia may improve but persists and osteodystophy may progress.

Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis:

This is a form of long term dialysis and involves insertion of a permanent intra peritoneal catheter in to the abdominal cavity. This procedure involves introduction of sterile dialysis fluid in to the peritoneal or abdominal cavity. The normal or usual quantity used is around two litres and then these two litres of fluid are allowed to remain in the peritoneal cavity. After about six hours, this fluid is again extracted out and disposed off. Now the abdomen is again perfused with a fresh sterile dialysis fluid. This alternate extraction and perfusion process is carried out repeatedly for about four times in a day. The best part is that it does not require the patient to be in bed and can move about and also do his regular routine work.

It is particularly useful for young children and the elderly patients with other diseases like cardio vascular instability and diabetes.

Patients have been known to continue, for 5 years on this treatment and it seems to be quite safe.

Renal transplantation:

This offers the possibility of restoring normal kidney functions and thereby correcting the many different electrolyte and metabolic dysfunctions of uraemia. The graft is usually taken from a cadaver donor or a coborn or the father or the mother.

Unless there is some support system available chronic renal diseases are always fatal. Information about the long term prognosis of patients on dialysis or transplant is really limited, because it has been recently started, but technology is changing fast now. Yet dialysis and transplantation can be considered as highly effective forms of treatment. There is an average of 80% survival of 5 years for patients on haemodialysis, 65% for transplanted kidney.

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