Information About Kidney Failure

QUESTION: Just the word "failure" is enough to make me shudder, but I need to
understand a lot more about kidney failure. Just what does this mean, how
does it effect someone's life, or is life possible with kidney failure? We do
not live in the same city as the relative for whom we are concerned, and hope
you can provide us with this information. Please?!
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ANSWER: The word "failure" has many negative meanings, and nowhere is it a
more threatening term than when used to describe the state of the kidney. To
understand what failure means, it is important to appreciate all the important
functions the kidneys perform when they are working normally. While solid
wastes leave the body as feces, and gaseous waste products (such as CO2)
depart by way of the lungs and exhaling, the liquid wastes leave by way of
sweat to a slight degree and through urine for the most part. And it is the
kidneys that control that function.
Many of the chemical processes in the body that lead to the development
of proteins use amino acids. Proteins form more than 10 percent of the
body's weight. Amino acids that remain after the body has used all it
requires are converted into urea by the liver, another waste product that
must be excreted from the body. And the passage out of the body for urea is
through the filtering mechanism of the kidney. Urine is thus composed of
water and urea, with a number of other chemicals as well.
When the kidneys are unable to filter these waste products out of the
blood, the wastes stay within the body, causing the symptoms associated with
kidney failure and impairing the functioning of many body systems. The three
major causes of kidney failure are the interruption of sufficient blood flow
to the kidneys (an obstruction of the renal artery for example), poisoning
with toxic substances that can destroy kidney tissue (heavy metals or some
types of industrial solvents), or infections or inflammations of the kidney
itself (nephritis).
There are two type of kidney failure, "acute" and "chronic". The acute
type is the result of a rapid deterioration of kidney function, often the
result of accidents, severe bleeding and shock or chemical toxins. Immediate
treatment is a must, for this is a life threatening condition. Chronic
failure develops more slowly, sometimes over a period of years, as bit by bit
the kidneys lose tissue, and the ability to perform the filtration function
that is the kidney's responsibility. The patient grows weaker, loses weight,
develops high blood pressure. Often the mental processes become dulled, there
are frequent headaches, and gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms such as vomiting,
stomach cramps, and even GI bleeding can occur. The most common cause of this
form of failure is glomerulonephritis, but long term untreated high blood
pressure can also lead to this serous disease. As the kidney fails the toxins
accumulate in the blood, and both blood and urine tests can provide the signs
necessary to make a diagnosis. This condition is frequently called "uremia"
(urine in the blood), and almost every system in the body is affected when
this occurs.
As the severity of the disease progresses, there are only two possible
therapies that can offer relief. The first is kidney dialysis, where the
blood is cleansed artificially by using a machine to perform the work the
kidneys no longer can do. The other, more preferable treatment is a kidney
transplant. Unfortunately, there are far more people needing this operation
than there are organs. Let this be my plea to all who read this column, to
consider including organ donation when they make their plans for the
inevitable that must come to us all.