Kidney failure- How much do you know about it?

The quantum of kidney failure is not exactly known in India. According to rough estimates it has doubled in the last decade and is rapidly rising. Kidney failure or End stage kidney disease is a condition, in which both kidneys are permanently damaged and can no longer perform their primary function of filtering toxins, wastes and extra fluids from the body. Kidney failure is worse disease than many of the cancers and causes early death if not appropriately treated. The common causes of kidney failure in are diabetes, hypertension, glomerulonephritis, untreated stones and kidney infections and injudicious use of certain drugs. After kidney failure a patient has to live on dialysis or can opt for kidney transplant. Kidney transplant offers several advantages and is always the best option for suitable patients. The quality of life is unmatched after a successful transplant and offers cure from kidney failure. Following transplant a person can live an active, healthy and independent life. Dialysis is a temporary solution for the organ failure. It has been proved that patients after transplant, lives approximately double than they would have lived on dialysis. Furthermore, younger patients and early transplant gain more years of life. Patients on dialysis are more likely to develop heart attacks and strokes, bone fragility and fractures, and repeated hospitalizations. Dialysis patients require regular blood transfusions for treatment of anemia, risking them to life threatening infections of Hepatitis and HIV. Kidney transplant provides a permanent cure for anemia lowering these risks. One of the frequent doubts regarding kidney transplant is higher cost. However, a successful kidney transplant is more cost-effective, avoiding cost of regular dialysis and future hospitalizations. Patients lead financially productive life after transplant and avoids loss of daily work hours for family members. With modern immunosuppressant medications and refined surgical techniques, the success rate of kidney transplant has improved drastically approaching 95%. As per Indian law, any healthy person can voluntarily donate one of its kidneys to his/her near relatives suffering of kidney failure. Voluntary donors have no ill effect on their health and lead a normal life with single kidney.