Live Longer with Renal Transplant

“Health is wealth” is one of the famous saying that all of us accept without questioning. For us to stay healthy, functioning of the excretory system is extremely important as they remove the impurities from the blood in the form of waste products. This excretory system consists of many organs which have to work well together for us to stay healthy.

The word Renal means – pertaining to kidneys. The kidney is one of the most important organs of our body located in the lower abdomen. They are the natural filters of the blood, which remove wastes and divert to the urinary bladder. The important functions of the kidneys are:

responsible for the re-absorption of water, glucose and amino acids

maintains acid-base balance in our body

regulates electrolytes and blood pressure

Produce hormones calcitriol, erythropoietin and the enzyme renin for the functioning of the body

Help in the production of red blood cells

Cleansing of the body through the removal of waste materials

When the functioning of the kidneys is disrupted, one may suffer from problems like Urinary Tract Infection, Renal Cysts, Urinary Tract Obstruction, Nephrolithiasis and Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). The chronic kidney disease is a condition of the kidney which starts to slow down the functioning of kidney over a period of time which may eventually lead to its final stage of kidney failure. This stage is called the End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). At this stage only treatment will be Dialysis or Renal Transplant.

Symptoms of Chronic Kidney Disease:

Kidneys perform various functions in our body and have the ability to compensate for the problems in their function. Thus, CKD may progress further without displaying any symptoms for long until the functioning of kidneys reduces drastically. Some of the symptoms of CKD are: frequent urination, swelling of legs and puffiness around the eyes due to fluid retention, high blood pressure, fatigue and weakness, loss of appetite, nausea, itching, pale skin due to anemia, easy bruising, shortness of breath, headaches, numbness in feet or hands, chest pain due to pericarditits (inflammation around the heart), bleeding due to poor blood clotting, bone pain and fractures.

Test for Chronic Kidney Disease: Kidney functioning is measured through a blood test of serum creatinine, which is used to measure the glomerular filtration rate. Though the serum creatininne varies with age, sex and race, it remains within the normal range till more than 50% of the kidneys are damaged. Detection of protein in urine sample is also the sign of disturbed functioning of the kidneys. The most common treatment for CKD is either dialysis or kidney transplant.rnDialysis is a procedure of artificially filtering the blood. As this involves a dialysis schedule and the person may have fragile health their freedom may be curtailed. Kidney Transplant or Renal Transplant is the replacement of the failed kidneys with a working kidney from another person. Though kidney transplantation is not a complete cure, it gives an opportunity of the person to live a better life with the regular medication to avoid the rejection of the transplanted kidney by the body.