Dialysis Modalities And Treatment Of Kidney Disease

Links available on the National Kidney Foundation Website keep the reader on the site and frequently take them back to the donation page. The Website provides a section for “Professional” users, however, the majority of the area is again written for the general public. One area reviewed provides an “Education and Research” option that takes the professional reader to more technical writing sources contained within the National Kidney Foundation Website. The Merck Manual links allow the reade

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a worldwide problem that is currently three times higher for African Americans, Hispanics, Pacific Islanders, American Indians and seniors (The National Kidney Foundation, 2013). CKD occurs when the kidneys are damaged by a pathogen or injury and they can no longer adequately maintain proper levels of regulated chemicals in the bloodstream. There are many risk associated with CKD. According to the National Kidney Foundation, two of the major risks are Chronic Renal Failure (CRF) and Cardiovascular Disease. Currently twenty million American adults have CKD and millions of others are at increased risk. Age has no barrier on getting CKD. People with pre-existing health issues, and a part of certain population

Patients require continuous treatments up to 3 times a week as they wait for a kidney transplant, while others are reliant on lifelong dialysis treatments due to their ineligibility of being a transplant recipient. Since wait times for kidney transplants can extend into several months and years, the cost incurred for these patients in relatively high. With the incidence of ESRD on the rise, there is a continuing need to provide services to address it. Healthcare organizations are expected to adapt their healthcare delivery models to address this increase of ESRD pertaining to kidney failure while staying financially viable.

In the United States Renal Data System (USRDS) report for 2015 there were 661,648 cases of End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) at the end of 2013, of which 117,162 cases were newly reported. Of the newly reported cases, 88.2% of individuals with ESRD started renal replacement therapy with hemodialysis (HD) while 9% began peritoneal dialysis (PD), and 2.6% received a kidney transplant.

However, doing clinical research and shadowing in this hospital’s emergency department opened my eyes to the daily trials of medicine without any romanticized preconceptions. A large proportion of this patient population did not have medical insurance and patients were often homeless, addicted to drugs or alcohol, or in unfortunate living situations. These patients did not have anywhere else to go for treatment, so they treated the emergency department as their primary care center, showing up for anything from a broken fingernail to chronic diseases like CKD. Working with these patients was especially frustrating, because often times their problems could have been prevented had they been able to access earlier and better care. I saw a significant need for efforts to increase access to care, especially for the surprisingly high amount of patients who came in with late stages of chronic kidney disease. In that same vein, I started a program at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities called the Kidney Disease Screening and Awareness Program. This program is working with the University of Minnesota Department of Nephrology residents to hold community screenings every few months targeted at underserved populations, testing blood, urine, and other risk factors to test for chronic kidney disease. After seeing the work these emergency physicians and nephrologists have been able to accomplish both individually and in the

This report, entitled “Comparative Analysis of the Funding Policy of the Ontario Renal Network and the British Columbia Renal Agency” has been written as my 4A Work Report for the Ontario Renal Network at Cancer Care Ontario. This is my fourth and final work term report. The British Columbia Renal Agency has been established for almost two decades and is the model agency that the Ontario Renal Network emulates. The purpose of this report is to analyze both the Ontario Renal Network’s and the British Columbia Renal Network’s method of funding its programs in order to make suggestions for improvement in the Ontario Renal Network’s funding policy.

Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) is a disease that is described as a loss of kidney function gradually over time. As kidney function decreases, the waste collection in the body’s blood becomes high and makes the individual feel sick. This disease can lead to other complications in the body such as anemia, poor nutritional health, high blood pressure, and nerve damage. These complications will begin to progress and show as CKD progresses to advanced stages. Early detection of this disease is essential when it comes to treatment. If CKD is diagnosed early enough the disease progression can be slowed down and managed. This disease will eventually lead to failure of the kidneys

Becker and Elias in their article: Cash for Kidneys: A Case for the Market of Organs, show many different perspectives in both fact and opinion on the topic of Kidney transplants.  The amount of kidney transplants in 2012 greatly differ from a decade ago as the average wait time for a transplant has increased by 1.6 years and the amount of American Citizens needing a transplant has risen by 41,000 people.  Today, the demand for a kidney transplant far exceeds the supply of matching donor kidneys.  With four main blood types and different muscle tissues to match, this is both a lengthy and difficult task.  With less kidneys than needed, hence the current wait time of 4.5 years, many people die while waiting for the transplant they so desperately

(2014) supported a need to change the current morality outcomes of the chronic kidney disease patient. This change affects all races across all continents. Wen and et al. (2014) determined, “Relative risks of chronic kidney disease for mortality and end-stage renal disease across races are similar.” The authors support a call to action challenging the reader to change the current conditions surrounding the mortality rates associated with chronic kidney disease. This action includes a preventative comprehensive plan to control kidney disease and delay it from become irreversibly chronic. By starting health promotion from the first signs of kidney issues, “optimized care before progression to CKF can delay the development of CKF and ensure that patients are in the best possible clinical condition when they reach CKF.” (Ortiz et al., 2014, p. 1838) The main issue for CKF is once the patient is at a point of needing dialysis, the treatment is considered to be too late. The high mortality rate for this patient is now past the point of change. Steps to improving the optimization of care, Ortiz and et al. (2014) recommends national prevention programs, holistic care, education for the general population and healthcare staff, legislative changes, improved care before dialysis, increase in specialized staffing, and a change in attitude will decrease the mortality rate of CKF

Imagine that one of your loved ones are in the hospital… they’re very sick and you don’t know what is wrong. The doctor comes in and tells you that your loved one is having kidney failure

“Every twelve minutes another name is added to the national organ transplant waiting list” (Donate life America, 2009) (para. 1&2). The National Center for Health Statistics (2008) website states “652,051 people die every year of heart disease, 75,119 die of diabetes, 43,901 die of nephritis, nephritic syndrome, and nephrosis [kidney disease].”

Kidney disease has become more prevalent over the years, one in nine Americans has chronic kidney disease, resulting in the need for a kidney transplant. Kidney failure is caused by variety of factors resulting in damage of the nephrons, which are the most important functioning unit of the kidneys. Kidney failure can be broken down into three groups: acute, chronic, end-stage. Once kidney failure is irreversible, dialysis or transplantation is the only method of survival. To avoid a kidney transplant, one needs to be aware of the pre-disposing factors, signs and symptoms, available treatments, and proper diet.

The introduction of dialysis as a lifesaving treatment for kidney failure was not the result for any large scale research

Unfortunately, the transplant wait‐list has increased far more quickly than the supply of deceased‐donor kidneys” (Curtis). This increase of older patients in need of kidneys leads to medial professionals making independent utilitarian judgements on who deserves them most. The nation's organ-transplant network is considering giving younger, healthier people preference over older, sicker patients for the best kidneys. “Instead of giving priority primarily to patients who have been on the waiting list longest, the new rules would match recipients and organs to a greater extent based on factors such as age and health to try to maximize the number of years provided by each kidney - the most sought-after organ for transplants” (Stein). These new rules

Kidney failure is a public health problem, which has dramatic effects on patients' health. In some