Kidney dialysis

Kidney dialysis^[a] is the process of removing excess water, solutes, and toxins from the blood in people whose kidneys can no longer perform these functions naturally. Along with kidney transplantation, it is a type of renal replacement therapy.

Dialysis may need to be initiated when there is a sudden rapid loss of kidney function, known as acute kidney injury (previously called acute renal failure), or when a gradual decline in kidney function, chronic kidney failure, reaches stage 5. Stage 5 chronic renal failure is reached when the glomerular filtration rate is less than 15% of the normal, creatinine clearance is less than 10 mL per minute, and uremia is present.^[1]

Dialysis is used as a temporary measure in either acute kidney injury or in those awaiting kidney transplant and as a permanent measure in those for whom a transplant is not indicated or not possible.^[2]

In West European countries, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, dialysis is paid for by the government for those who are eligible.^[3][4] The first successful dialysis was performed in 1943.

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