How Do Kidneys Fail?
What is Kidney Failure?
We’ve been talking about symptoms of kidney disease but what does it mean when they say someone’s kidneys have failed?
#Kidney failure occurs when the kidneys can no longer perform the duties it used to do, to know whether a person’s kidneys have failed or are failing, one of the tests that needs to be done is a #kidney function test. A kidney function test is a blood test that checks the levels of some substances that are supposed to be cleared by your kidneys.
Types of kidney failure
There may be acute kidney failure/ Disease or chronic.
Acute kidney failure can be reversed once the condition causing the damage is treated e.g. loss of blood or severe burns . Chronic kidney failure occurs when there is prolonged and continued damage to the kidneys.
How can one prevent Kidney disease?
Let’s discuss how to prevent #kidney disease.
Take your drugs and go for your appointments If you happen to be diabetic or hypertensive. Such conditions may be complicated by kidney disease if not properly managed.
Sometimes kidney disease is silent and might be discovered accidentally when a person does a kidney function test, so it is essential one does a kidney function test routinely to check the status of the kidneys.
Routine urine tests are also helpful.
Treatment of kidney disease.
Here is how to go about treating kidney disease:
See a doctor and do the recommended tests. The doctor will give you antibiotics if you have an infection, blood if you have anaemia, intravenous fluids if you are stooling and vomiting.
Chronic kidney disease on the other hand will require #dialysis and or a #kidney transplant. What dialysis does essentially is to take the person’s blood out and filter it of harmful substances before replacing the blood back, this is because the kidneys are no longer able to perform this function. There are different forms of dialysis.
A kidney transplant on the other hand is the definitive treatment, and will require a matching donor kidney.