Dialysis Assignment, Compare and Contrast Roles

Dialysis
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Question 1
Healthy kidneys help in cleaning blood from wastes fluids such as urine. Kidneys also help produce substances that help keep the body healthy. There are instances whereby the kidneys can no longer function and this is where dialysis comes in to serve the purpose of artificial kidneys. There are two types of dialysis: hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. Hemodialysis involves the use of a man made dialyzer that cleans and purifies blood which is then pumped back to the body. In peritoneal dialysis, a cleansing fluid (dialysate) flows through a catheter into part of the abdomen and filters the waste in the blood. After an indicated period of time, the fluid with the waste flows out of the patient’s abdomen and is thrown away (Meess, 2000)
Question 2
The different values to test for chronic kidney disease is creatinine (a left-over product in the blood that originates from muscle movement. It is usually removed from the blood by kidneys. A rise in creatinine means that kidney functioning has reduced) and Blood Urea Nitrogen (BUN) (a waste product in the blood that is normally removed by kidneys. Kidney failure leads to a high level of BUN in the blood). These tests will help me help measure how healthy the patient’s kidneys are based on how they filter blood. I will use the level of creatinine in the patient’s blood to find out the glomerular filtration rate (GFR) which I will then use to determine how much kidney function is left and the stage of the chronic renal failure. GFR abo...