Dialysis is an important replacement therapy for the patients with End Stage Renal Failure and it plays a crucial role in maintaining the patients’ life. However, can dialysis totally replace the native kidneys to maintain the normal physiological activities or improve the kidney function?
Kidneys are important organs in body and mainly have three functions: 1. Excretion of metabolic wastes and excess fluid out of body; 2. Secretion of various kinds of hormone. For example, kidneys can secrete erythropoietin that plays an important role in regulating normal blood pressure. 3. Keeping electrolyte balance. Moreover, our kidneys work continuously in 24 hours to keep our internal environment clear.
However, hemodialysis is usually done for about 12 hours in a week. Therefore, in the intervals of dialysis, the fluid and wastes will still accumulate in body and damage the kidney function. When doing dialysis, those accumulated fluid and wastes will be discharged out of body in a short time. It will disorder the normal blood circulation and so on thus leading to fluctuation of blood pressure and even heart failure. Moreover, dialysis also does not have the secretion and keeping the electrolyte balance. During dialysis, the patients are very likely to have anemia
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