What is kidney failure?

Kidney or renal failure occurs when the kidneys are unable to do their job of filtering blood and ridding the body of waste products. One cause of renal failure relates to narrowings of the renal arteries, starving the kidneys of oxygen and nutrients.

Kidney failure or disease includes conditions that damage your kidneys.  When this happens it lowers your kidneys ability to remove wastes in your blood.  If these wastes accumulate in your body without proper filtration, you will die.  There are generally no symptoms in the early stages of kidney failure, but as the disease progresses, you may experience nausea and vomiting, decrease appetite, itching, muscle cramps and exhaustion.  You blood work will indicate high level of blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine.  Treatment will require dialysis or a kidney transplant.

Kidney failure, also called end-stage renal disease or ESRD, is a chronic condition in which extra fluid and harmful wastes build up in the body because the kidneys no longer work properly. A person with kidney failure needs dialysis or a kidney transplant. The kidneys are the two bean-shaped organs located near the middle of the back. They filter wastes from the blood, form urine, and send it to the bladder.

Kidney failure (also called end-stage renal disease) occurs when kidney damage is so severe that a person needs dialysis or a kidney transplant to maintain life. Kidney failure often occurs after kidney damage has been present for 10 years or more.

Diabetes and high blood pressure are the most common causes of kidney failure in the United States.

Kidney failure can be measured by how well the kidneys are able to filter wastes from the blood. This is called glomerular filtration rate, or GFR. Kidney failure usually occurs when the GFR falls to below 15% of what is expected in a person with normal kidney function.

Kidney failure is treated with dialysis, which helps filter waste products from the blood when the kidneys are not working properly, or with kidney transplant.

The final stage of chronic kidney disease is kidney failure, or end-stage renal disease. People with kidney failure need dialysis, in which blood is cleaned through a machine, or a new, healthy kidney through transplantation.

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