Kidney failure is a medical condition that is not limited to any specific age group or gender. There are various reasons for kidney failure, and thanks to advances in medicine, treatment is available for all variations of the problem. Kidney failure, for which the medical term is End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) is the final kidney disease stage. It means that your kidneys have stopped working and will need dialysis or a kidney transplant to survive.
In most cases, kidney failure results from other health problems that have affected the functioning of the kidneys. This is usually a slow process and takes place over an extended period. The common medical conditions that cause this slow progressive kidney failure include:
In some cases, kidney damage can occur suddenly. This is known as acute kidney injury, or acute renal failure, and the common reasons for this are:
The signs of ESRD include:
The signs of acute kidney injury include:
Cases of acute kidney injury can often be successfully treated by medication and changes to diet and lifestyle. After diagnosing the condition to be acute kidney injury, a doctor will recommend the medicines and dietary and lifestyle changes that the patient will have to follow. If medication is not successful or if the condition is diagnosed as ESRD, then the only options are dialysis for the rest of your life or a kidney transplant. Many people live long and active lives while on dialysis.
If dialysis is not a viable option, then a kidney transplant is the only choice. A kidney transplant is exactly what the term says – a diseased or non-functioning kidney is removed from the body and replaced with a healthy one. The healthy kidney, or the donor organ, can come from various sources. It could be from a family member, a friend, an organ donor, or a deceased person who has indicated that their organs should be given to others. Whatever the source, blood, and tissue tests are required to ensure that the donor organ is a suitable replacement and that the body will not reject it.
Once a donor’s kidney is located and other health conditions are met, the surgery can be scheduled. If the existing kidneys are not infected or causing pain, the surgeon may decide to allow them to remain in place along with the new kidneys. In other cases, the old kidneys may be removed.
Recovery from kidney transplant surgery is relatively straightforward. You should be able to start walking in a day or two and usually leave the hospital within a week. A period of 2 months of rest and recovery is the norm. The hospital will provide you with details of what you should and should not do, your diet, the medications you will have to take, and the schedule for your follow up check-ups.
Originally published Oct 27, 2016, updated January 15, 2021
Kauvery Hospital is globally known for its multidisciplinary services at all its Centers of Excellence, and for its comprehensive, Avant-Grade technology, especially in diagnostics and remedial care in heart diseases, transplantation, vascular and neurosciences medicine. Located in the heart of Trichy (Tennur, Royal Road and Alexandria Road (Cantonment), Chennai, Hosur, Salem, Tirunelveli and Bengaluru, the hospital also renders adult and pediatric trauma care.
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