Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a condition in which kidneys are damaged irreversibly. It is caused by my diseases or conditions namely: 1. Diabetes 2. High BP 3. Glomerulonephritis 4. OTC (over the counter) medications like Pain killers and some ayurvedic medications. 5. Kidney infections, Kidney tumours 6. Some genetic diseases CKD is a long-term disease and usually progresses over time. CKD most commonly does not have any symptoms until it is fairly advanced. It is diagnosed with blood tests like Renal function tests which include serum Creatinine, blood Urea and BUN, urine routine and microscopy The level of kidney damage in CKD is classified into 5 stages of kidney damage, from very mild damage in Stage 1 to complete kidney failure in Stage 5. The staging is usually done taking in account Serum Creatinine, body Weight, age and race. Patients with CKD can live normal, healthy lives by following lifestyle and diet changes; and taking appropriate medicines for their disease. This disease is usually progressive. But with a proper medical care and regular medications along with an optimum diet as advised by your doctor the progress can be delayed reasonably to lead a normal and healthy life. Acute kidney injury It is condition in which the kidney is affected temporarily due to any transient or other chronic illness and it is usually REVERSIBLE after the primary cause of illness is treated or controlled. It is in most instances treatable and some patients may require transient dialysis till the kidney functions improves with treatment. Many ICU and hospitalised patients may have acute kidney injury.

When a CKD patients kidney function drops to severely low levels along with significant increase in creatinine and other toxins like urea in blood, excess fluid accumulation in body and acid and potassium then his blood needs to be filtered to remove the excess toxins and fluid. Similar process can be required in patients with AKI (acute kidney injury- a form of temporary kidney disease) HEMODIALYSIS is a form of dialysis where blood is filtered by passing it through a machine and a filter called as a DIALYZER. Usually, patients require an AV fistula on their forearm for doing dialysis. Haemodialysis also has few other variants like SLED and CRRT which are slow forms of dialysis and usually done in ICU patients who have very low BP.

Kidney or Renal transplant is carried out for patients with advanced kidney failure, i.e., when the kidney function is irreversibly reduced to below 15%. Usually this is done when patient is started on dialysis, but rarely it is done even before starting dialysis when patient is expected to require dialysis in near future. During a kidney transplant, a donor’s kidney is placed is placed into the body of a recipient. The damaged kidneys of the patient are usually kept except some special diseases. Kidney transplants are usually performed with Blood group matched donors. But with some special treatment protocols even non blood group matched (ABO incompatible) donors can donate their kidneys to a recipient. Kidney transplant is broadly done under 2 categories Live kidney transplant: the donor is alive and a near relative of the recipient. Cadaveric/Deceased donor transplant: kidney or other organs are taken from a patient who is “Brain Dead” and has anyways a poor chance of survival without life support systems(ventilators).