What Is Hemodialysis and How It Works?
Healthy kidneys purify your blood and eliminate excess fluid in the form of urine. They also create compounds that are beneficial to your body's wellbeing. When your kidneys stop working, dialysis takes over some of these duties. What is hemodialysis? A machine takes blood from your body, filters it via a dialyzer (artificial kidney), and returns the cleansed blood to your body using hemodialysis. This 3- to 5-hour procedure takes place three times each week in a hospital or dialysis clinic. Hemodialysis can also be performed at home. You may require at-home treatments four to seven times a week for fewer than two hours each time. You can undergo home hemodialysis at night while sleeping. What takes place during hemodialysis? During hemodialysis, your blood passes from your body through tubes into a dialysis machine. While in the machine, your blood passes through a filter known as a dialyzer, which cleans your blood by eliminating some of the waste and surplus fluid. The cleanse...