Diseases Treatment

The term is quite simple. Renal Insufficiency means that the kidneys are unable to filter all the wastes and poisons from the blood. Thus, various amounts of toxic materials remain harmfully in the body. If the kidneys fail completely, death results in a few days, from uremia “uremic poisoning “. This ia a damming-up of toxins which is fatal unless corrected.

There are degrees of uremia. Early symptoms are headache, loginess, itching, muscle discomfort, with or followed by nausea and vomiting. The patient becomes drowsy, perhaps has convulsions, and lapses into coma and death.

Insufficiency is relative to the capabilities of a particular pair of kidneys. Insufficiency may result from some acute, repairable condition, or from gradual and irreversible damage and destruction of kidney tissue over a period of years. A major purpose of good urological care is to prevent insidious kidney injury and whenever possible to eradicate causes of insufficiency by such measures as clearing up infections and removing or by­passing obstructions.

Great advances in treatment of renal insufficiency have been made in recent years. One of the mechanisms artfully employed by the kidneys is dialysis. This is the separation of substances in solution, having different diffusibilities, by passing them through a porous membrane, such as membranes of the kidney filters. Similar filtration can be achieved by techniques of peritoneal dialysis, in which membranes of the abdominal cavity do the work of the diseased kidneys temporarily. Blood passed through peritoneal membranes is cleansed and returned to the body. The technique has proved very successful in treatment. Absorptive resins placed in the gastrointestinal tract are useful adjuncts.