Kidney Failure Flashcards
What happens if the kidneys don’t work properly?
Waste substances build up in the blood and you lose your ability to control the levels of ions and water in your body. Eventually, this results in death. (if kidneys don’t work, you can also get heart problems, bones, nervous system, stomach, mouth, etc.)
How can people with kidney failure be kept alive?
By having 1. dialysis treatment - where machines do the job of the kidneys. Or they can have a 2. kidney transplant.
Why does dialysis have to be done regularly (form of treatment)?
To keep the concentrations of dissolved substances in the blood at normal levels, and to remove waste substances.
What happens to blood in a dialysis machine?
The person’s blood flows between partially permeable membranes, surrounded by dialysis fluid. It’s permeable to things like ions and waste substances, but not big molecules like proteins (just like the membranes in the kidney).
What is similar between dialysis fluid and healthy blood? What is good about this?
Has the same concentration of dissolved ions and glucose.
This means that useful dissolved ions and glucose won’t’ be lost from the blood during dialysis.
What will diffuse across the barrier?
Only waste substances (such as urea) and excess ions and water.
How often do many patients with kidney failure have to have a dialysis session and how long does each session take?
Three times a week, 3-4 hours each session.
What problems could dialysis cause?
Blood clots or infections.
Being on a dialysis machine is not a pleasant experience and it is expensive for NHS to run.
What is a good thing about dialysis?
It can buy a patient with kidney failure valuable time until a donor organ is found.
What is, at the moment, the only cure for kidney failure?
A kidney transplant.
From whom are healthy kidneys usually transplanted from? What requirement is needed from these people?
People who have died suddenly. The person who died has to be on the organ donor register or carry a donor card (provided their relatives agree too).
What’s another way can kidneys be transplanted from other than the died suddenly people?
From people who are still alive (as well have two of them) but there is a small risk to the person donating the kidney.
What is a risk with donor’s kidneys?
The donor’s kidney can be rejected by the patient’s immune system. The patient is treated with drugs to prevent this but it can still happen.
What is an advantage that both transplants and dialysis have other each other?
Transplants are cheaper (in the long run) and they can put an end to the hours patients have to spend on dialysis.
There are long waiting lists for kidneys though.
