Treatments for End Stage Renal Disease
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Treatments for End-Stage Renal Disease
By Laura Robusto
Nursing Website---March 2003
This article is about new advancements for treating End-Stage Renal disease. In End Stage Renal Disease, or ESRD, the patient's renal disease is so bad that he will die without treatment. The most common causes of ESRD are, in order, diabetes, uncontrolled hypertension, glomerulonephritis and polycystic kidney disease. There are three treatments available for ESRD: Hemodialysis, Peritoneal Dialysis and Transplantation. The first treatment that can be done is Hemodialysis requires that the patient have regular treatments with an artificial kidney attached to a dialysis machine. Most are performed in an outpatient dialysis facility, but patients with supportive partners may opt to perform the treatments themselves in their home. Treatments typically are done three times a week and last for four hours. The other way to treat this disease is peritoneal dialysis which requires that a patient infuse a concentrated dextrose solution into the peritoneal cavity. Through osmosis and diffusion, extra water and wastes are pulled into the fluid, which is periodically drained and replaced. There are two primary ways to perform peritoneal dialysis: the "bag" or "hand exchange" method known as Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD), and the "night cycler" method, known as Continuous Cycler Peritoneal Dialysis (CCPD)...