Dialysis

Healthy kidneys help to clean your blood and remove extra fluid in the form of urine. When kidney failure happens, few treatments are required to replace the kidney functions. In most of the cases, the effective treatments for kidney failure are of three types in hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, and kidney transplant. You should ask for your doctor’s suggestion before deciding the best choice for you.

Hemodialysis

Treatment is required when a patient is in stage 5 chronic kidney disease. Only the best renal physician can detect the stage of CKD by checking your condition. Hemodialysis machine has a special filter called a dialyzer which works like an artificial kidney to clean your blood. The expert needs to make an entrance into your blood vessels. Usually, the access is made with minor surgery done in one’s arms.

Peritoneal Dialysis

Peritoneal dialysis is a treatment for kidney failure that uses the lining of your abdomen, or belly, to filter your blood inside your body.
A few weeks before you start peritoneal dialysis, a surgeon places a soft tube, called a catheter, in your belly.
When you start treatment, dialysis solution—water with salt and other additives— flows from a bag through the catheter into your belly. While the dialysis solution is inside your belly, it absorbs wastes and extra fluid from your body.
After a few hours, the solution and the wastes are drained out of your belly into the empty bag. You can throw away the used solution in a toilet or tub. Then, you start over with a fresh bag of dialysis solution. You need to repeat the process of emptying (exchange of) the used solution and refilling your belly with fresh solution four to six times every day.
You can do your exchanges during the day, or at night using a machine that pumps the fluid in and out. For the best results, all of your exchanges should be done as prescribed. Dialysis can help you feel better and live longer, but it is not a cure for kidney failure.

Arteriovenous fistula

An AV fistula is a connection, made by a vascular surgeon, of an artery to a vein. Vascular surgeons specialize in blood vessel surgery. The surgeon usually places an AV fistula in the forearm or upper arm. An AV fistula causes extra pressure and extra blood to flow into the vein, making it grow large and strong. The larger vein provides easy, reliable access to blood vessels. Without this kind of access, regular hemodialysis sessions would not be possible. Untreated veins cannot withstand repeated needle insertions, because they would collapse the way a straw collapses under strong suction.
Health care providers recommend an AV fistula over the other types of access because it

Before AV fistula surgery, the surgeon may perform a vessel mapping test. An ultrasound device, called a transducer, that bounces safe, painless sound waves off organs to create an image of their structure. The patient does not need anesthesia for this procedure. A Doppler ultrasound shows how much and how quickly blood flows through arteries and veins so the surgeon can select the best blood vessels to use.
A surgeon performs AV fistula surgery in an outpatient center or a hospital. The vascular access procedure may require an overnight stay in the hospital; however, many patients go home afterward.
An AV fistula frequently requires 2 to 3 months to develop, or mature, before the patient can use it for hemodialysis. If an AV fistula fails to mature after surgery, the surgeon must repeat the procedure.
If an AV fistula does not mature, an AV graft is the second choice for a long-lasting vascular access.