Treatment for kidney failure

Dialysis machines fillter the blood (the kidney's job).

This has to be done reguarly to keep concentrations of dissolved substances (e.g. sugars) in the blod at normal levels, and to remove waste substances.

How it works:

Paitients blood flowws between partially permiable membranes surrounded by dialysis fluid.

The membranes are permiable to things like ions and waste substances but not big molecules like proteins, (just lke the kidney's membranes).

the dialysis fluid has the same concentration of dissolved ions and glucose as healthey blood, this means the dissolved ions and glucose won't be lost from the blood during dialysis.

Only waste substances such as urea and excess ions and water diffuse across the barrier.

Advantages: Being on a dialysis machine can buy a paiteint valuable time waiting for an organ donor to become availabe.

The new kindney may be rejected by the patients immune system.

Transplants are cheaper, but there are long waiting lists.

The person who has died will have their kindney transplanted, only if they have a donor card.

There is also the potential for infection during the procedjer.