What does dialysis mean

Most people have heard of dialysis. Generally, if someone has cancer, they will go to the hospital for dialysis. However, most people think that dialysis is just a treatment method, and patients will feel very painful after dialysis, and it is also easy to cause other complications. But these views are just superficial ones on dialysis. In fact, dialysis has a deeper meaning. Let’s understand what dialysis means in medicine.

Unlike peritoneal dialysis, hemodialysis uses an artificial semipermeable membrane to introduce the patient's blood and dialysate into the dialyzer (artificial kidney) at the same time. There is blood on one side of the dialysis membrane and dialysate on the other side. With the help of the solute concentration gradient and osmotic gradient on both sides of the membrane, toxins are removed by diffusion, convection, and adsorption. Excess water retained in the body is removed through superfiltration and osmosis, and electrolyte and acid-base imbalances are corrected.

(1) Indications for chronic maintenance hemodialysis: Patients with clinical manifestations of chronic renal failure, blood urea nitrogen exceeding 20 mmol/L, and blood creatinine exceeding 400 micromol/L can undergo maintenance hemodialysis.

(2) Indications for emergency dialysis:

① Hyperkalemia (more than 6.5 mmol/L) that cannot be controlled by drugs;

②Oliguria, anuria, and severe edema that cannot be treated with drugs;

③Chronic renal failure combined with acute heart failure, pulmonary edema, and cerebral edema

④ Hypertension that cannot be controlled by medication;

⑤ Metabolic acidosis that cannot be corrected by drugs;

⑥Complications include pericarditis, gastrointestinal bleeding and central nervous system symptoms. The choice between hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis should be determined based on the patient's specific circumstances. Hemodialysis is highly efficient and less protein is lost during the dialysis process. However, these patients often have damage to the cardiovascular system and are prone to cardiovascular complications and hypotension during dialysis, and hypoglycemia after dialysis. Peritoneal dialysis can reduce the cardiovascular burden during hemodialysis and avoid complications of hypoglycemia. But the disadvantage is that it may increase the chance of abdominal infection and increase protein loss.