Kidney failure

Question 1

How is kidney failure detected

Answer 1

By measuring the glomerular filtration rate(GFR)

• which is the rate at which blood is filtered from the glomerulus into the bowman’s capsule.
• low rate means kidneys aren’t working properly

Question 2

What causes kidney failures

Answer 2

1) Kidney infection: This causes inflammation of the kidneys, which can damage the cells, which interferes with the filtering in the bowman’s capsule
2) High blood pressure: Can damage the glomerulus, blood in glomeruli are under high pressure but the capillaries can be damaged if the blood pressure gets TOO high. This means larger molecules like proteins will actually be able to get through the capillary wall and into the urine.

Question 3

What problems do kidney failures cause

Answer 3

• waste products that normally removed begin to build up- too much urea causes weight loss and vomiting
• Fluid accumulates in tissues as kidneys can’t remove excess water from the blood, causing part of the body to swell.
• unbalanced electrolytes in the body

Question 4

What does long term kidney failure cause

Answer 4

anaemia- which is a lack of haemoglobin in the blood

Question 5

What are the 2 ways to treat kidney failure

Answer 5

1) Renal dialysis ( Haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis)

2) Kidney transplant

Question 6

Haemodialysis

Answer 6

Blood flows through a dialysis machine, blood flows on one side of a partially permeable membrane and dialysis fluid flows on the other side.

• waste products, excess water and ions diffuse across the membrane into the dialysis fluid, to remove them from the blood

Blood cells and proteins are too large and are prevented from leaving the blood

Question 7

Disadvantages of haemodialysis

Answer 7

Each dialysis session takes 3-5 hours, and patients need 2-3 sessions a week at a hospital.

• Patients start to feel increasingly unwell between dialysis sessions as, waste products and fluid build up in the blood.

Question 8

Peritoneal dialysis

Answer 8

The dialysis fluid passes through a tube that passes out from a patient’s abdomen into their abdominal cavity

• waste diffuses out of the patient’s blood into the dialysis fluid across the peritoneum( membrane of the abdominal cavity)
• Fluid is drained out after some time

The dialysis is usually carried out at home by the patient several times a day or in one long session over night

Question 9

Disadvantages of peritoneal dialysis

Answer 9

• patient has to do dialysis every day

- risk of infection around the site of the tube

Question 10

Advantages of both types of dialysis

Answer 10

• keep the patient alive until a transplant is available

- less risky than having surgery

Question 11

Advantages and disadvantages of kidney transplant

Answer 11

A: Cheaper to give transplant than keep them on dialysis for a long time, more convenient for a person rather than regular dialysis sessions

D: Patient will have to undergo a major operation which is risky
- immune system may reject the transplant, so some patients may have to take drugs to supress it.