preview

Treatment And Treatment Of Dialysis Treatment

Better Essays

Under normal conditions, your kidneys are responsible for multiple functions such as cleaning blood, producing hormones, balancing electrolytes, and maintaining blood pressure in the body. When the kidneys fail, blood pressure will rise, wastes/toxins will remain in the body’s circulation, and the body will retain excess water which can lead to inadequate production of red blood cells (Source 6). These symptoms of kidney failure are a medical emergency and call for intervention such as a kidney transplant. The wait for a kidney can be lengthy; therefore a process known as dialysis can be a life sustaining measure until a suitable donor is matched. Dialysis has been found to temporarily alleviate the condition, but only for an average …show more content…

Once the Dialysis filters the blood, the clean blood is returned to the patient through another tube that’s injected into the patient (Picture A). Even though this procedure is done under supervision in the security of a hospital and does a more than adequate job of performing the functions of a normal kidney, there are some disadvantages. For one, the dialysis process is a very strict and time consuming. The schedule requires treatment 3 times a week for 4-5 hours (Source 6). This time commitment will most likely to be very inconvenient and make the previous life style of the patient difficult. Secondly, if proper cleansing routines are not followed, it is also possible for the patient to receive an infection. A third disadvantage is the constant insertion of needles into the patient which can not only cause infection/irritation if the needles are unsterile, but can lead to stress for the patient if they have a fear of them. Another disadvantage is that patients often report increased itchy skin, of which there has yet to be found a soothing remedy. A fifth disadvantage is that some patients on dialysis establishing insomnia/restless leg syndrome, which can lead to sleep apnea, headache, depression, and decreased alertness (Source 2). However, unlike the itchy skin, the symptom of insomnia has multiple effective treatments. A final disadvantage of hemodialysis is a

Get Access