Can Kidney Function Restored After Dialysis?

What is dialysis?

Dialysis is a medical technique to remove the extra waste products and excess fluid from the blood. It replaces the functions of the kidney. In general, there are two type of dialysis. First is haemodialysis, in which the blood is put via a filter outside the body. Outside the blood is cleaned and then returned to the body again. It can be performed in a dialysis centre. Second type of dialysis is peritoneal dialysis. In this process the blood is cleaned inside the body. The abdomen is filled with a special fluid in to absorb waste from the blood that passes through small vessels in your abdominal cavity. After wards, the fluid is drained way. This dialysis is mostly carried at home.

When a person needs dialysis?

A chronic kidney disease is an alarming sign of dialysis. In chronic kidney disease, the kidney lost almost 70% or more of its functioning. The kidney functions becomes more worse if not treated over a period of time. The end stage of chronic kidney disease is kidney failure to which the only treatment is kidney transplant or regular dialysis. When the kidney functioning stops, toxic waste start building up in your body and you start suffering from nausea, fatigue, swelling, and throwing up. Mostly, dialysis starts with onset of the symptoms.However, the dialysis start depends on the age, severity of disease, overall health, energy level, and the willingness to go for the dialysis plan. After dialysis, the patients feel better and lives longer. The type of dialysis to be chosen depends on the time of the treatment and also upon the doctor’s recommendation.

How long a person needs dialysis?

The length of dialysis process depends upon the health circumstances. There are cases when kidney’s dysfunction is a temporary problem than the dialysis is continued until the kidneys recover. When cases in which there is permanent loss in kidney functioning, kidney transplant is must. But often, people cannot afford or go for a kidney transplant than dialysis for them is compulsory. There are cases when straight away kidney transplant is not possible, for them dialysis is performed until they found a suitable kidney donor and are ready for transplant. However, there are patients who are weak enough to go for a major surgery such people are kept on dialysis for the rest of their life. Thus, dialysis is carried out as per the need. It can for a specific period of time or lifelong. Once your suffer from a chronic kidney disease or kidney failure than kidney transplant or dialysis are the only treatment available for you.

How kidney functioning is restored during dialysis?Haemodialysis:

In this type of dialysis, the kidney functions are restored outside the body. The process takes place by fixing a tube attached to a needle in your arm. Through the tube the blood containing the waste and toxins is passed into an external machine. The machine filters the blood and pass it back in to the body via a tube attached to the other arm. Haemodialysis is to be carried out thrice in a week. The time taken for each session is around 3 to 4 hours.

Peritoneal dialysis:

In this type of dialysis, the kidney functions are restored inside the body with the help of a special fluid. In the process, the peritoneum lining of the abdomen is used as filter. The peritoneum lining of the abdomen can act as a filtering machine due to presence of thousands of small blood vessels. For filtration, a thin tube called the catheter is inserted inside the peritoneum space of the abdomen. For inserting the catheter an incision is made near the navel area of the abdomen. The catheter is left in place permanently and the special fluid is pumped in to the peritoneal cavity via it.

The function is restored when the blood passes via the blood vessels lining the peritoneal cavity. The waste products and excess fluid are taken of the blood and poured into the dialysis fluid. The fluid with waste is drained into a bag, after a few hours later the bag is filled with fresh fluid again. The fluid has to be changed after 30 to 40 minutes and has to be changed around 4 times a day. The alternative to it is a machine that drains out the waste fluid overnight while you sleep.

Which type of dialysis is best:

Haemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis?Both the type have its own advantages and disadvantages. It will be dilemma to choose one. It is best to take the decision by consulting your doctor as well as your family after getting the whole knowledge about both the type of dialysis.With haemodialysis the advantage is that it has to be performed only 4 times in a week. The drawback of haemodialysis is that the sessions of dialysis are longer and it has to be done in a dialysis centre only.

With Peritoneal dialysis, the advantage is that it can be done at the ease of your home and can also be performed at home while you are asleep. The disadvantage that it needs to be done every day and the fluid has to be replaced around four times in a day. This makes it little cumbersome and difficult process.

Dialysis is a long known medical technique benefitting a lot of patients suffering from chronic kidney failure. It is a successful technique to bring comfort and long life to kidney failure patients. Dialysis is performed in every multi-speciality hospitals. Life after dialysis is easy and qualitative. The procedure is non-invasive and has almost no side-effects.

You can find the list of cities in India that provide kidney dialysis centre along with their respective prices here

Puja Rastogi is a Medical Writer and contributor to healthprice.in. she has 3 years of experience in writing articles on Health. puja likes to share information related to health.