Dialysis

When your kidneys are healthy, they clean your blood. They also make hormones that keep your bones strong and your blood healthy. When your kidneys fail, you need treatment to replace the work your kidneys used to do. Unless you have a kidney transplant, you will need a treatment called dialysis.

What is Dialysis?

Dialysis is a treatment method that replicates the function of the kidneys when they are failing. In healthy individuals, the kidneys work to filter and remove waste products, excess fluid, salts and toxins from the blood.

Dialysis Types

Indications for Dialysis

Renal Replacement Therapy

Benefits and Disadvantages of Dialysis

Latest Dialysis News and Research

High blood pressure can lead to structural changes in the kidneys

A research team from the Medical University of Vienna has investigated structural changes in kidneys of patients with hypertension and type 2 diabetes.

27 Mar 2025

Concierge approach enables more people to receive kidney transplants and erases disparities

Patients hoping for a kidney transplant must first undergo a battery of medical tests to determine whether they are suitable candidates for the procedure and healthy enough to take post-transplant immunosuppressant drugs to prevent organ rejection.

22 Mar 2025

£2.2 million grant supports clinical trials for liver dialysis device

Clinical trials to continue the development of a liver dialysis device to treat those with life-threatening liver disease have been funded by a grant awarded to UCL, the Royal Free Hospital and Yaqrit.

21 Mar 2025

FDA-approved drug for chronic kidney disease may help mitigate antibiotic resistance

Increased antibiotic use can lead, seemingly paradoxically, to more problematic infections, as the bacteria evolve to resist the treatment.

18 Mar 2025

New research aims to unravel genetic mysteries of polycystic kidney disease

Polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a family of genetic disorders that causes clusters of cysts to form on the kidney, is among the most common genetic disorders, affecting some 500,000 people in the United States.

14 Mar 2025

WHO and KSRelief commit to expanded health initiatives at Riyadh Forum

The Riyadh International Humanitarian Forum on 24-25 February 2025 brought together global partners from the humanitarian sector to discuss urgent health and humanitarian issues.

8 Mar 2025

Study shows benefits of GLP-1 drugs for kidney transplant recipients with type 2 diabetes

Kidney transplant recipients with type 2 diabetes treated with a new class of anti-obesity drugs were less likely to experience organ failure and survived longer, a new study shows.

5 Mar 2025

Pig kidney transplant patient completes recovery and returns home

Three months after her breakthrough surgery at NYU Langone Health, Towana Looney, the longest-living recipient of a genetically engineered pig kidney, is headed back home to Alabama.

25 Feb 2025

Peristaltic pumping motion found to trigger amyloid formation

Researchers from Osaka University find that peristaltic pump action and high shear flow forces promote amyloid nucleation.

17 Feb 2025

New genetic map offers hope for more precise diagnosis and treatment of kidney disease

Over 1,000 genes may serve as possible treatment targets for individuals with kidney disease, according to a new study, published in Science, from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

10 Feb 2025

Pain coping skills training reduces pain and improves quality of life for dialysis patients

People undergoing hemodialysis treatment for kidney failure often experience chronic pain related to their condition, but it can be difficult to manage with opioid medication and other conventional treatments.

31 Jan 2025

Climate change is pushing up rates of kidney disease and urological cancers

Climate change is increasing the risk of urological diseases, including cancer and kidney conditions, while urological healthcare itself contributes to environmental harm through high carbon emissions.

29 Jan 2025

NHS introduces genetic test to help reduce kidney failure risk for black donors

Hundreds of potential kidney donors of Black African and Black Caribbean heritage in the UK can now get a simple blood test to help reduce the risk of kidney failure.

28 Jan 2025

Nonpharmacologic pain intervention provides benefits to people with dialysis-dependent kidney failure

Among people with dialysis-dependent kidney failure, a form of psychological therapy called pain coping skills training reduced how much pain got in the way of their daily lives, also known as pain interference.

30 Dec 2024

Breakthrough pig kidney transplant ends dialysis for Alabama woman

An Alabama woman is free from dialysis and in better health after surgeons at NYU Langone Health performed a gene-edited pig kidney transplant last month.

17 Dec 2024

Scientists identify potential therapeutic targets for diabetic kidney disease

New potential therapeutic targets have been identified for diabetic kidney disease (DKD) - the leading cause of kidney failure in the world - that could see patients treated with new gene and drug therapies preventing the disease's progression into end stage kidney failure.

10 Dec 2024

CMS introduces new payment model to improve kidney transplant outcomes

A new final rule issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services this week for a mandatory alternative payment model called the Increasing Organ Transplant Access (IOTA) Model aimed to improve the number of life-saving kidney transplants for patients whose kidneys have failed.

2 Dec 2024