Kidney Failure Research Paper

Kidney failure and its scientific solutions

Figure 1: ALL ABOUT OUR KIDNEYS, 2015

Kidneys are bean- shaped excretory organs found in the body. There are two of them in the body. They are positioned against the back muscles in the upper abdominal cavity, one on the left and the other on the right. The right kidney is lower than the left one because it needs to accommodate or provide space for the liver. The kidneys remove waste products like excess salts, toxins and urea (a nitrogenous based compound that is produced after deamination) from the blood and they balance water and the body fluids. The kidneys get their blood from the aorta through the renal arteries and it passes through a structure in it called nephrons which extracts waste from

The main problem that the kidneys are prone to is kidney failure, also called acute renal failure. This is the condition where the kidneys lose their ability to stop working or perform their functions. The types of causes of this disorder are categorized based on when they take place, therefore there are the pre -renal, renal and the post- renal causes. The pre- renal causes are the ones that happen before the disease occurs, they include; blood-clotting issues, low blood pressure causing low blood volume (hypovolemia) in the kidney, urinary tract infections, dehydration and medication such as diuretics which cause water loss. Renal causes affect the kidney directly, they include sepsis (when the immune system is overwhelmed by infections which causes the kidney to shut down), medication which are toxic to the kidney e.g. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin, and others) etc. lastly the post- renal causes include, obstruction of the bladder; the kidney produces more urine but due to the obstruction it acts like a dam instead of emptying and soon forces the kidney to shut down and kidney stones which only causes the disorder if only one kidney is present. The main cause of this conditions is the accumulation of waste products in the kidney. In some cases kidney failure can be treated and they can go back to normal

In haemodialysis, blood moves from the body into the machine through a tube and passes next to a filter. In the meantime, dialysate (specialized chemical solution) flows on the other side or membrane of the machine. In this dialyzer of artificial kidney machine, the blood and the dialysate never come into contact. In this type of dialysis, for large quantity of blood to be taken into the dialyzer and back to the body, there is need of access to the blood vessels and this can access can be surgically created. In the process, surgeons create a fistula, this is a connection between a large artery and vein which is mostly in the arm to allow large quantity of blood into the vein. When this happens, the vein expands or swell rather making its wall increase in thickness to withstand the needle sticks attached from the body to the dialyzer. The only limitation in creating a fistula is that it takes a while to mature, probably weeks or months for it to be ready for use hence this method, haemodialysis requires a lot of planning. In the case that renal failure occurs abruptly and there is need for immediate attention, then the doctors can use special tubes that will be inserted into a larger blood vessel in the arm, leg or even the chest. The tubes might be required to stay in the same