Renal failure or kidney failure (formerly called renal insufficiency) describes a medial condition in which the kidney fail to adequately filter toxins and waste products from the blood. The two forms are acute (acute kidney injury) and chronic (chronic kidney disease); a number of other diseases of health problems may be caused due to renal failure.
Renal failure is described as a decrease in the glomerular filtration rate. Biochemically, renal failure is typically detected by an elevated serum creatinine level. Problems frequently encountered in kidney malfunction include abnormal fluid levels in the body, deranged acid levels, abnormal levels of potassium, calcium, phosphate and (in the longer term) anaemia. Depending on the cause, hematuria (blood loss in the urine) and proteinuria (protein loss in the urine) may occur. Long-term kidney problem have significant repercussions on other disease, such as cardiovascular disease.
Types of kidney failure :
Renal failure can be divided into two categories : acute kidney injury or chronic kidney disease. The type of renal failure is determined by the trend in the serum creatinine. Other factors which may help differentiate acute kidney injury from chronic kidney disease include anaemia and the kidney size on ultrasound. Chronic kidney disease generally leads to anaemia and small kidney size.
Acute kidney injury :
Acute kidney injury (AKI), previously called acute renal failure (ARF), is a rapidly progressive loss of renal function, generally characterized by oliguria (decreased urine production, quantified as less than 400 ml per day in adults, less than 0.5 mL/kg/h in children or less than 1 mL/kg/h in infants); body water and body fluids disturbances and electrolyte derangement. AKI may result from from a variety of causes, generally classified as prerenal, intrinsic and postrenal. An underlying cause must be identified and treated to arrest the progress and dialysis may be necessary to bridge the time gap required for treating these fundamental causes.
Chronic kidney disease :
Chronic kidney disease (CKD) may develop slowly and initially, show few symptoms. CKD can be long term consequence of irreversible acute disease or part of a disease progression.
Dialysis (Artificial Kidney)
In medicine, dialysis (from Greek "dialusis", meaning dissolution, "dia", meaning through and "lysis", meaning loosening) is primarily used to provide an artificial replacement for lost kidney function in people with renal failure. Dialysis may be used for those with an acute disturbance in kidney function (acute kidney injury, previously acute renal failure) or for those with progressive but chronically worsening kidney function-a state known as chronic kidney disease stage 5 (previously chronic renal failure or end-stage kidney disease). The later form may develop over months or years, but in contrast to acute kidney injury is not usually reversible and dialysis is regarded as a "holding measure" until a renal transplant can be performed, or sometimes as the only supportive measure in those for whom a transplant would be inappropriate.
The kidney have important roles in maintaining health. When healthy, the kidneys maintain the body's internal equilibrium of water and minerals (sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and sulphate ). Those acidic metabolism end products that the body cannot get rid of via respiration are also excreted through the kidneys. The kidneys also function as a part of the endocrine system producing erythropoietin and calcitriol. Erythropoietin is involved in the production of red blood cells and calcitriol plays a role in bone formation. Dialysis is an imperfect because it does not correct the endocrine functions of the kidney. Dialysis treatments replace some of these functions through diffusion (waste removal) and ultrafiltration (fluid removal).
Kidney stones :
(ureterolithiasis) result from stones or renal calculi (from Latin ren, renes, "Kidney" and calculi, "pebbles") in the ureter. The stones are solid concretions or calculi (crystal aggregations) formed in the kidneys from dissolved urinary minerals. Nephrolithiasis refers to the condition of having kidney stones. Urolithiasis refers to the condition of having calculi in the urinary tract (which also includes the kidneys), which may form pass into the urinary bladder. Ureterolithiasis is the condition of having a calculus in the ureter, the tube connecting the kidneys and the bladder.
There are several types of kidney stones based on the type of crystals of which they consist. The majority are calcium oxalate stones, followed by calcium phosphate stones. More rarely, struvite stones are produced by urea-splitting bacteria in people with urinary tract infections and people with certain metabolic abnormalities mat produce uric acid stones or cystine stones.
Kidney transplantation or renal transplantation :
Kidney transplantation or renal transplantation is the organ transplant of a kidney into a patient with end-stage renal disease. Kidney transplantation is typically classified as deceased donor (formerly known as cadaveric) or living-donor transplantation depending on the source of the donor organ. Living-donor renal transplants are further characterized as genetically related (living-unrelated) transplants, depending on whether a biological relationship exists between the donor and recipient.