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Kidneys
The kidneys serve many purposes. They regulate electrolytes, blood pressure, and acid levels. They also help to filter the blood.
921 Questions
How long will it take after kidney surgery to have blood counts go back to normal?
Before leaving the hospital, you will receive a schedule of follow-up clinic visits for lab tests and checkups. The purpose of these important visits is to track your recovery progress and detect any potential complications as early as possible.
On the days you are scheduled to see the transplant team, bring your medication list. You need to be at the clinic to have your blood drawn one hour before your morning dosage of medication is due. Afterward, you will take your medication. This is necessary so we can get an accurate reading of the immunosuppressant levels in your blood.
The lab tests we perform monitor your blood counts, kidney function, liver function, electrolytes, and the medication levels in your blood. Other tests may be ordered as necessary.
Blood Count
Kidney Function
Electrolytes
Additional Blood Tests
Kidney Biopsy
Ultrasound
Blood Count
WBC tells us if your white blood cells have increased (usually a sign of infection) or decreased (indicating a lower defense against infection). HCT measures your hematocrit, the percentage of red blood cells present in your blood. Red blood cells carry oxygen to all parts of the body. When your HCT is low, you may feel tired or have little energy.
PLTS measures the level of platelets in your blood. Platelet cells form blood clots when your body is injured. Low platelet levels may cause you to bruise easily and to bleed for a longer time period.
Kidney Function
Creatinine and BUN tell how well your kidney is working by measuring levels of creatinine and blood urea nitrogen, waste products normally removed from the blood by the kidneys.
Electrolytes
Dissolved minerals
Calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, potassium, and sodium are naturally occurring electrolytes in your blood. They all will be monitored and supplemented when necessary.
Additional Blood Tests
Drug levels measure the amount of Prograf®, Neoral®, and Rapamune® in your blood. They need to be checked regularly to avoid levels that are too high or too low. High levels could lead to toxicity or over-immunosuppression, and low levels may lead to rejection. Please Note: The desired level (normal range) will differ for each person, depending on the combination of immunosuppressive medications and the length of time since the transplant.
GLU measures glucose (levels of sugar) in the blood. Some medications may produce a diabetes-like condition in which blood sugar levels are too high.
Kidney Biopsy (Bx)
A kidney biopsy is usually performed to check for rejection or drug toxicity and other possible problems. A local anesthetic is used, a biopsy needle is inserted, and a small piece of kidney tissue is removed.
What are the Risks of a Kidney Biopsy?
The primary risk with kidney biopsy is bleeding from the site of the needle's entry into the kidney, but this occurs in less than 1% of patients. Other very rare complications include puncture of other organs such as the colon or a blood vessel. You will be monitored closely for several hours after the procedure to make sure no complications arise.
Instructions for Patients Having a Kidney Biopsy
The office staff will set up the appointment for your kidney biopsy and call you with the date, time, and location of the biopsy. Please be sure to follow these instructions:
You must abstain from medications containing aspirin and ibuprofen, such as Advil®, Motrin®, Nuprin®, and Aleve®. Tylenol® is OK. Notify your physician if you are taking blood thinning medication such as Coumadin®, warfarin, or Plavix®.
It is not recommended that you drive or return home unattended. Plan to have someone accompany you to the procedure or pick you up afterward.
After the doctor performs the biopsy, you must rest in bed for several hours. Before you return home, your blood pressure will be monitored and your urine will be checked for bleeding.
Call the Transplant office at (212) 305-6469 if you experience any of the following symptoms after your biopsy:
Bloody urine
Swelling and/or pain near your kidney
Fever
Lightheadedness/dizziness
Low blood pressure
Ultrasound
This non-invasive diagnostic test, which uses sound waves to image the internal organs, may be performed after your transplant operation, or when your kidney function tests change. An ultrasound allows us to be certain that the main blood vessels leading to the kidney are functioning normally. It can also be used to check for:
the build-up of abnormal fluid around the kidney,
an obstruction, or
to localize for biopsy.
During the test, a gel is spread over your abdomen and a transducer (wand-like instrument) is passed over the abdomen's surface. Images of your kidney appear on a monitor and are recorded on film.
Health Concerns After You Leave the Hospital
Once you leave the hospital, you are NOT alone.
The condition known as polycystic kidney disease is inherited and the cysts slowly reduce kidney function and leads to kidney failure. the condition can also effect the liver and pancreas.
What is opisthonephric kidney?
An opisthonephric kidney is the functional kidney of anamniotes, fish, and amphibians.
Why does a fall in pressure sometimes lead to kidney failure?
Inadequate blood flow to the kidney, as with shock, can lead to a decrease in kidney filtration and, therefore, kidney failure.
What happens if a person's kidney failed to function?
The kidneys remove toxins and waste products from the blood. When that stops, external filters are needed. Without your kidneys functioning, the toxins would continue to build up in your body; and you would eventually die within a matter of days. As a result of those toxins, a condition known as jaundice occurs, marked by a distinct yellowing of the eyes, skin and fingernails.
The short-term treatment would be kidney dialysis. A dialysis machine acts in place of the failing kidneys, and although it is inconvenient to use, it can prolong life for many years.
The long-term solution is a kidney transplant. Even after a successful kidney transplant, the recipient will still have to take anti-rejection drugs for the remainder of the patient's life.
You have two kidneys if one fails and the other is ok then you can live with one kidney. If both kidneys fail then you will need to do dialysis or have a kidney transplant otherwise you will die
What are three tasks of the kidneys?
It helps cleaning our blood, because without the kidneys a person could not live. If a person's kidneys are not functioning, they can be exposed to a dialysis machine which help keep the kidneys cleaning the blood.
The kidneys also produce urea, a major part of urine.
The kidneys are lateral to the?
The kidneys are lateral to most everything in the body, including the vertebral column, aorta, pancreas, stomach, and vena cava.
The kidneys act as if they were a filter. They remove wastes (mostly liquids) from the blood, and have some control of your blood pressure.
Kidneys are vital organs that function to keep the blood clean and maintain chemical balance within. They process blood to extract waste products and extra water. These by products become urine to be ultimately excreted from the body.
The kidney serves many important functions, including:
- Filtering out wastes to be excreted in the urine.
- Regulating blood pressure via both urinary excretion of wastes and initiating the renin-angiotensen hormone regulatory system
- Regulating an acid-base balance via the bicarbonate system
- Stimulating red blood cell production via the release of the hormone erythropoietin.
Interesting fact: We have two kidneys to get the filtering done well. Well enough to filter our blood entirely - several times every five minutes.
The human kidneys are a pair of organs that help to maintain proper water and electrolyte balance, regulate acid-base concentration, and filter the blood of metabolic wastes, which are then excreted as urine. Along with the liver, the kidneys keep the bloodstream clean and the blood at the proper thickness and pressure.
The kidneys' main function is as a homeostatic regulator. Your body has equilibrium levels for salt content, water content, core temperature, blood pressure and blood volume. The kidneys help to maintain these equilibrium levels, mainly the cardiovascular components. For example, they regulate blood pressure and volume through the absorption of water from the blood.
The kidneys are an essential part of the urinary system and also serve homeostatic reasons such as the regulation of blood pressure and acid-base balance. They take out waste such as urea and ammonium; also responsible for reabsorpitation of water, glucose, and ammonium acid.
Function
- Ultrafiltration: the process by which fluid is filtered out of the blood by the glomerulus.
- The blood pressure in a glomerulus causes part of the blood plasma to leak through the capillary walls. The red blood cells and plasma proteins are too big to pass out of the capillary, so the fluid that does filter through is plasma without the protein. The fluid thus consists mainly of water with dissolved salts, glucose, urea and uric acid.
- Selective Reabsorption: the process of absorbing back the substances needed by the body.
- The filtrate from the glomerulus collects in the renal capsule and trickles down the renal tubule.
- As it does so, the capillaries which surround the tubule absorb the substance the body needs back into the blood.
- ** The glucose is reabsorbed with much of the water.
- Some of the salts are taken back to keep the correct concentration in the blood.
- *** Salts not needed by the body are left to pass down the kidney tubule with the urea and uric acid.
- They continue down the renal tubule into the pelvis of the kidney, passes down the ureter and to the bladder.
- Urine cannot escape from the bladder because a band of circular muscle, called a sphincter, is contracted, so shutting off the exit. When it relaxes, the muscular walls of the bladder expel the urine through the urethra.
- ** Adults can control this sphincter muscle and relax it only when they want to urinate.
- In babies, the sphincter muscle relaxes by a reflex reaction, set of off by pressure in the bladder.
Water balance and osmoregulation
- The body:
- ** Gains water from food and drink
- Loses water by evaporation, urination and defececation.
- *** Evaporation from the skin takes place all the time but is particularly rapid when we sweat.
- Air from the lungs is saturated with water vapor which is lost in the atmosphere when we exhale.
- Despite these gains and losses of water, the concentration of body is kept within very narrow limits by the kidneys, which adjust the concentration of blood flowing through them.
- ** If the blood is too dilute, less water is reabsorbed from the renal tubules, leaving more to enter the bladder.
- If the blood is too concentrated, more water will be absorbed back into the blood from the kidney tubules.
- A rise in blood concentration is thought to stimulate a thirst center in the brain. The drinking which follows this stimulation restores the blood to its correct concentration.
- Osmoregulation: the regulatory processes that keep the blood at a steady concentration.
- One example of the process of homeostasis
The kidney is used to excrete liquids from the body to the urinary tract in order to get rid of wastes and excess minerals.
Anatomy. Either one of a pair of organs in the dorsal region of the vertebrate abdominal cavity, functioning to maintain proper water and electrolyte balance, regulate acid-base concentration, and filter the blood of metabolic wastes, which are then excreted as urine.
they remove carbon dioxide from the blood and send it to the lungs.
the blood that enters the kidneys contains poisonous nitrogen wastes , as well as other wastes produced by body cells . Each kidney has about one million tiny tubes that filter wastes from the blood. Blood that has been cleaned by the kidneys returns to the heart to be pumped to other parts of the body . Urine passes slowly from the kidneys into the urinary bladder where the urine is stored until you are ready to empty your bladder
How do Cystitis spread to the Kidney?
Cystitis is a bladder infection. More common in females than male because females have a shorter urethra. The male urethra is extended by having a penis. We have two kidneys which are located in the loin area which is found round the back above our hips. If you place your hands on the hips with the thumbs forward facing the area under your palms is roughly where each kidney is located. The kidneys are each connected to the bladder by a tube called a ureter. The kidneys usually become infected because the bacteria travel up the ureter from the bladder to the kidney/s. This will cause loin pain which is usually felt as an ache and can be very uncomfortable. At this stage antibiotics are usually given to clear the infection and you will be advised to drink plenty of water to help flush the bugs out. If caught early, when you feel the stinging when passing urine, you may be able to prevent a kidney infection by drinking plenty, say a glass of water an hour. At this stage you can also drink Cranberry juice which is slightly acidic and it can end the problem. A sensitive subject now but worth taking note of and that is to wipe the bottom after using the toilet from front to back and not from back to front where the bacteria are brought forward to the opening of the bladder. All they need to do then is to enter. By wiping from front to back the bugs are being removed from the area. Hope this helps.
Can a kidney biopsy tell you what causedy you have chronic kidney disease?
Sometimes, but usually a biopsy is not necessary to determine best treatments for CKD
How long can you live with 20 percent kidney function left and a sugar level of 20?
You can probably live several days with basically no kidney function, but you will die eventually from all the waste build up. The sugar level of 20, not very long. a blood sugar under 50 is a medical emergency and requires intervention.
Does severe dehydration cause urine volume to decrease?
Yes, severe dehydration causes urine volume to decrease. Your body will conserve water to maintain homeostasis.
You know the kidney is an organ but is there another organ behind the kidneys?
The kidneys are retroperitoneal, this means they are held into the posterior wall of the abdomen behind the peritoneal folds. So no there is nothing behind them.
Should you see a kidney doctor for kidney infection?
No, you should see your primary care provider first for a kidney infection (or urgent care, if your primary is not available).
What structure in the kidneys is responsible for removing waste from the blood?
Either air sacs or capillaries
Does a Gastroenterologist work with kidneys?
A gastroenterologist deals with the digestive tract, which does not include the kidneys.
What if the kidneys in the human body are weakened what will happen to the excretory system?
The result of weakened kidneys is that blood will not be filtered efficiently. This affects the
amount of urine produced. Another outcome is that unwanted substances (waste materials)
might circulate in the blood instead of being excreted.
What is the term for cavities that lead to the middle part of the kidney?
The renal pelvis (middle part of the kidney) is the main cavity leading into the ureter, which drains away urine. There is only one renal pelvis for each kidney. The renal pelvis itself is shaped by projections into it called major calyces. The cavities created by these projections are still part of, and in continuity with, the renal pelvis. Rita Muttalib UK
calyces
The renal pelvis (middle part of the kidney) is the main cavity leading into the ureter, which drains away urine. There is only one renal pelvis for each kidney. The renal pelvis itself is shaped by projections into it called major calyces. The cavities created by these projections are still part of, and in continuity with, the renal pelvis. Rita Muttalib UK
pelvis
