Acute Kidney Injury is a sudden episode of kidney failure or kidney damage, causing a build-up of waste products in your blood and excess fluid in your body. AKI can happen within a few hours or a few days, but it is treatable and your kidneys may recover, unlike in chronic kidney disease where the damage is permanent. Learn the causes and symptoms of Acute Kidney Injury in this program.
In order for a dialysis machine to clean excess fluid or waste material from a person's blood, the patient needs to be connected to the machine, usually for several hours, three times a week. This connection, or fistula, is often made in the patient's arm, where an artery is surgically connected to a vein. Learn more about this access point, or AV fistula, and how it works, by watching this program.
Chronic Kidney Disease, or CKD, is a life-long condition where the kidneys are unable to properly filter waste products and fluid from the blood. Learn how this disease progresses through 5 stages, depending on the level of kidney function, with Stage 5, or End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD), being the most serious. With ESRD, a patient must undergo dialysis or receive a kidney transplant in order to survive.
