Kidney Failure

Symptoms of Kidney failure:

  • protein in urine (protein is too big to diffuse through the baseman membrane)

  • swollen feet

  • nausea

  • drowsiness

Short term kidney failure can be caused by:

  • infection

  • blockage of ureter

    these can be treated by antibiotics or surgery

Chronic (long term) kidney failure can be caused by:

  • effect of unregulated diabetes

  • high blood pressure

  • tumours in the abdomen

Controlling the amount of protein in the diet helps to reduce the amount of urea produced by the liver.

As the person’s kidney worsens, the urea content of their blood increases to life threatening levels. The patient needs treatment before this happens, most common are Dialysis or an Organ donation

Dialysis

IMPORTANT DIALYSIS THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW

  • The concentration of sugars and salts dissolved in the dialysis fluid is the same as their concentration in the blood, it contains no urea.

  • Urea diffuses from the blood in the tubes where it is in high concentration through the membrane into the dialysis fluid where it is in low concentration.

  • Blood leaving the dialysis machine = Dialysis fluid

    (= same concentration)

  • Proteins and blood cells are to pass through the membranes so stay in the blood

Dialysis machines are very expensive, and patients need to be connected 4-5 hours, 3-4 times per week

Organ Donation

Kidney cells like all cells have antigens on their surface, meaning their immune system recognises any strange antigens and will attack foreign cells. In order to avoid the donor kidney to be rejected by the body, the donor must have similar antigens to the patient. Even with a good match, patients need life-long immunosuppressant drugs to prevent any rejection. Down side is the medication makes the person more susceptible to infection (catching colds etc)

fun fact - people can survive with one kidney! 🫢

In a transplant operation the new kidney is attached to the blood vessels and bladder but the old kidneys are normally left alone (just incase they get better 😊)

New kidney is put lower down in the abdomen because it’s closer to the bladder for waste substances, and the tubes connecting the new kidney can be shorter.