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.
Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis, or CAPD, is a type of kidney dialysis that is done continuously throughout the day. Usually 4 to 5 times each day, the patient fills their abdomen with a special a washing fluid. While the fluid sits in the abdomen it removes excess fluids and any waste material from the blood and is drained from the abdomen. Watch this program to learn more about CAPD.