Table of contents:
- Treatment options and treatment for kidney failure
- 1. Hemodialysis
- 2. Peritoneal dialysis
- 3. Kidney transplant
- 4. Conservative care
- What about herbal remedies for kidney failure?
As kidney disease gets worse, your doctor may discuss with you to prepare yourself for kidney failure. Therefore, consulting your doctor from the start about treatment options for kidney failure helps increase life expectancy.
Treatment options and treatment for kidney failure
An understanding of the treatment options and treatments chosen does take a long time. The reason is, each type of treatment has advantages and disadvantages of each and has an impact on your daily life.
Therefore, patients with kidney failure need to study the differences between treatment options and choose the best among them. The more types of medications and treatments that are known, the more prepared the patient is to make choices.
Here are some ways to treat kidney failure provided by health services, as reported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease.
1. Hemodialysis
One of the treatment options for kidney failure is hemodialysis. The method using this tool can help the body replace the part of kidney function that is lost, such as:
- Filters blood from waste and excess fluid.
- Helps control blood pressure.
- Helps balance mineral levels, such as potassium, sodium and calcium.
Normally, before starting hemodialysis, you will need to undergo a small operation to create a vascular access, where the needle is inserted. This is so that blood can flow to and from the body during dialysis.
Although hemodialysis is not a cure for kidney failure, it can help you feel better and survive longer. During the hemodialysis treatment process, kidney failure patients also need to change their lifestyle.
2. Peritoneal dialysis
In contrast to hemodialysis which can be performed both at home and at a dialysis center, the peritoneal dialysis procedure is carried out at home.
This treatment option for kidney failure uses the lining of the stomach to filter waste and excess fluid from the body. This layer, called the peritoneum, surrounds the abdominal cavity and will replace the role of your kidneys.
Before starting, you will also have a minor surgery to insert a catheter (soft tube) in your stomach. This catheter is permanent.
If you have started peritoneal dialysis, the dialysis solution, a mixture of minerals and sugar dissolved in water, will flow into the stomach through the catheter.
Sugar (dextrose) will remove waste, chemicals, and excess fluid from the small blood vessels in the membrane into the dialysis solution.
The solution used will then be drained from the stomach through a tube after a few hours. Furthermore, the solution will carry waste from the blood and the stomach is refilled again with fresh dialysis fluid and the process is repeated again.
There are several types of peritoneal dialysis that you can choose from depending on your current needs and body condition, namelycontinuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) andautomated peritoneal dialysis.
Keep in mind that neither peritoneal dialysis nor hemodialysis are drugs that can cure kidney failure. Both of these methods are done to replace some of the kidney functions to keep the body healthy.
3. Kidney transplant
If dialysis is performed to replace some of the roles of the kidneys in the body, not for kidney transplants. A kidney transplant is a procedure of placing a healthy donor kidney into the body.
Compared to dialysis, this treatment for kidney failure aims to have kidney function taken over completely by healthy organs. However, kidney transplantation is also not an absolute cure for your kidney failure.
If you undergo a transplant procedure, the surgeon will leave the old kidney and connect the donor kidney to the arteries and veins in the groin.
Then, the doctor will also replace the ureter from the donor so that urine can flow from the new kidney to the bladder. After that, the transplanted kidney will take over the task of filtering the blood in the body.
Not just anyone can undergo a kidney transplant in the near future. You will need to wait for the donor kidney and it will be called upon according to severity and need. While you are waiting, dialysis procedures are still needed.
4. Conservative care
A kidney transplant may seem like a last resort in treating kidney failure in order to survive. However, there are actually other drug and treatment options when living with damaged kidneys, namely conservative treatment.
Conservative treatment is a method aimed at relieving symptoms of kidney failure without dialysis or a kidney transplant. One thing to keep in mind is that like the two treatments mentioned, this method cannot treat kidney failure completely.
Before starting this treatment, the doctor will look at several factors first, namely:
- symptoms experienced,
- other health problems,
- degree of damage to kidney failure, and
- nutritional health.
After that, the doctor will consult with you regarding the choice of medication to relieve the symptoms of kidney failure you are experiencing. In fact, this choice is also influenced by the history of the disease that is being experienced.
For example, patients with acute kidney failure may receive treatment to prevent complications and treat the kidneys until they heal, namely:
- Treatments to balance fluid levels in the blood, such as diuretic drugs.
- Medicines to control blood potassium, such as sodium polystyrene sulfonate.
- Medicines to restore calcium levels in the blood.
- Blood pressure control drugs, such as ACE inhibitors.
Basically, kidney failure drugs are almost similar to the treatment of kidney disease in general. It's just that this treatment is intended so that patients do not experience complications and help improve quality of life despite kidney problems.
What about herbal remedies for kidney failure?
Kidney failure is a serious condition and requires the earliest possible treatment by a doctor, from antibiotics to a kidney transplant. Meanwhile, the use of herbal medicines to treat kidney failure is not a priority.
Herbal remedies that are claimed to treat kidney failure are often considered unsafe because some of them can actually worsen kidney damage.
If you want to take certain herbal supplements to relieve your symptoms, ask your doctor whether it is safe or not.
The choice of drugs and treatments to treat problems caused by kidney failure is quite varied. During treatment, patients with kidney failure need to pay attention to their lifestyle so that the body remains healthy and can survive.
