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.
If you and your healthcare team have chosen hemodialysis to treat your kidney failure, you'll need an access point, or connection point, so that your blood can be cleaned by the dialysis machine several times a week. For most people, this access point is an AV fistula, often made in the patient's arm. By watching this program, you'll learn how your dialysis care team will access the fistula during dialysis.
Learn what an implanted access port is and how it works to deliver medication, fluid and nutrients to the body. It also can be used to draw blood samples when needed.
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.
