When the kidneys fail to filter blood effectively, we need to filter the blood through dialysis.
The main purposes of dialysis are to help
Remove wastes from the blood
Remove excess liquid from the blood
Keep acid-base and electrolytes in balance
Currently there are two types of dialysis that can help patients with kidney disease achieve the purpose of filtering blood
Peritoneal dialysis
Hemodialysis
Peritoneal dialysis uses peritoneum as a dialysis membrane to achieve the purpose of purifying blood.
Hemodialysis uses a dialysis membrane in a dialyzer to purify the blood.
Hemodiafiltration is a combination of hemodialysis and hemofiltration, which combines the benefits of them. Thus, the quality of life of patients is greatly improved.
Hemodialysis: Hemodialysis removes solute, toxins (Urea, creatinine and other small molecular toxins), from the blood by diffusion.
Hemofiltration: Hemofiltration removes solute and solvent, water and toxins (β2-MG and other middle molecules), by convection.
Hemodiafiltration: Hemodiafiltration uses both diffusion and convection to cleanse blood. It can efficiently remove small and medium molecule metabolic waste in the patient's body. This dialysis mode has greatly improved the occurrence of complications caused by insufficient clearance of medium molecular metabolic toxins by hemodialysis and insufficient clearance of small molecular toxins by hemofiltration.
*Tolwani A. N Engl J Med 2021; 367: 2505-2514
In clinical treatment, doctors can choose the most appropriate dialysis method according to the specific condition and needs of the patient.