Renal replacement therapy
Encyclopedia
Renal replacement therapy is a term used to encompass life-supporting treatments for renal failure
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It includes:
These treatments will not cure chronic kidney disease. In the context of chronic kidney disease, they are to be regarded as life-extending treatments (though if chronic kidney disease is managed well with dialysis, and a compatible transplant is found early and is a success, the clinical course can be quite favorable). In certain acute conditions or injuries resulting in failure, a person who likewise had a good response to dialysis, who got a kidney relatively quickly if indicated- and whose body did not reject the transplanted compatible kidney- and who has no other significant health problems, could very well survive for many years, with relatively good kidney function, before needing intervention again). Early dialysis
(and, if indicated, early renal transplantation) in acute renal failure usually brings more favorable outcomes. It may even bring resolution of renal failure in some acute cases, though it would be very unusual for a person to regain total or near-total kidney function- usually some degree of impairment remains.
Renal failure
Renal failure or kidney failure describes a medical condition in which the kidneys fail to adequately filter toxins and waste products from the blood...
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It includes:
- hemodialysisHemodialysisIn medicine, hemodialysis is a method for removing waste products such as creatinine and urea, as well as free water from the blood when the kidneys are in renal failure. Hemodialysis is one of three renal replacement therapies .Hemodialysis can be an outpatient or inpatient therapy...
, - peritoneal dialysisPeritoneal dialysisPeritoneal dialysis is a treatment for patients with severe chronic kidney disease. The process uses the patient's peritoneum in the abdomen as a membrane across which fluids and dissolved substances are exchanged from the blood...
, - hemofiltrationHemofiltrationIn medicine, hemofiltration, also haemofiltration, is a renal replacement therapy similar to hemodialysis which is used almost exclusively in the intensive care setting...
and - renal transplantation.
These treatments will not cure chronic kidney disease. In the context of chronic kidney disease, they are to be regarded as life-extending treatments (though if chronic kidney disease is managed well with dialysis, and a compatible transplant is found early and is a success, the clinical course can be quite favorable). In certain acute conditions or injuries resulting in failure, a person who likewise had a good response to dialysis, who got a kidney relatively quickly if indicated- and whose body did not reject the transplanted compatible kidney- and who has no other significant health problems, could very well survive for many years, with relatively good kidney function, before needing intervention again). Early dialysis
Dialysis
In medicine, dialysis is a process for removing waste and excess water from the blood, and is primarily used to provide an artificial replacement for lost kidney function in people with renal failure...
(and, if indicated, early renal transplantation) in acute renal failure usually brings more favorable outcomes. It may even bring resolution of renal failure in some acute cases, though it would be very unusual for a person to regain total or near-total kidney function- usually some degree of impairment remains.