The kidney plays a significant role in the human body’s excretory system.
It is responsible for filtering the waste from the human blood and have it eliminated from the body in the form of urine. It is sad to say, however, that diseases such as diabetes may affect the kidney and further induce damages such as disturb this vital filtering system.
In the event that your kidney suffers from this damage, a peritoneal dialysis will be recommended by the doctor.
Doctors will give a patient two options when it comes to the kind of dialysis to undergo. They may opt for the hemodialysis or the peritoneal dialysis.
Both of which are good alternatives that will buy the patient more time until a healthy donor comes in.
When you say dialysis, you are referring to the process of removing the waste from your blood in the event that your kidney is not healthy enough to do this on its own. So when you say peritoneal dialysis, this has something to do with use of the minute blood vessels in the human abdomen or the peritoneal cavity in the process.
What exactly happens during peritoneal dialysis? Since the aim of this process is to remove waste (which could be any toxic chemical or extra fluid) from the human blood, a mixture is needed attract these harmful substances.
Hence, a sugar and some minerals are dissolved together with water and is allowed to flow through a catheter from a bag which is likewise connected to the cycler machine.
A patient will be advised by the doctor as to the duration of the dialysis mixture in the abdomen. This could vary from the long overnight hours (dwell time) or from four to six hours during that patient’s wakeful hours.
As with any other kind of treatment for any disease, the peritoneal dialysis may also result in some complications that need to be given immediate attention to prevent the condition from getting severe. One of these complications is the peritonitis, the infection of the abdominal cavity and the peritoneum. This is induced when there is improper handling of the catheter or some contamination in any of the materials used in the process.
It should therefore go without saying that it is vital to wash one’s hands before handling the catheter and to make sure that the area where the catheter is located be kept sterilized and perpetually clean.
A doctor must immediately notified too when the dialysis solution emits a foul odor or when it turns cloudy. Pain and swelling or redness of the catheter area will likewise need urgent attention.
