Your Kidney

By Geo Ortan
Updated August 6, 2004
Everybody has two kidneys. They're in the middle of the abdomen in the back, and they're usually the size of a fist. They drain into two tubes called the ureters, which lead into the bladder.

The most obvious function of the kidney is to excrete waste that we produce from the diet and from metabolic processes. The kidney also controls the composition of the body fluids, and produces a number of hormones that deal with body function.

Some common terms related to the kidneys are as follows:

Renal

A term relating/pertaining to the kidneys, for example renal (kidney) failure.

Nephro

Prefix referring to the kidney as, for example, in nephropathy. It is from the Greek word ?ˇ¦|?nephros?ˇ¦|?, which means kidneys.

Nephropathy

This is a disease of the kidneys. Hyperglycaemia (high sugar levels) and hypertension can damage the kidneys' glomeruli (the filtering units of the kidneys). When the kidneys are damaged, protein leaks out of the kidneys into the urine. Damaged kidneys can no longer remove waste and extra fluids from the bloodstream.

Nephrotoxic

Any substance that is toxic to the kidney, causing damage to it.

Nephritis

Nephritis is inflammation of the kidneys. Inflammation may affect different parts of the kidneys. For example, when the filtering units of the kidneys (the glomeruli) are affected, it is called glomerulonephritis; when the kidney tubules and surrounding tissue are affected, it is called tubulointerstitial nephritis.

Inflammation of the kidneys is generally caused by an infection, as in pyelonephritis, or when an autoimmune reaction damages the kidneys. Side effects of medication can also be responsible.

Prompt treatment of infections and appropriate treatment of underlying medical conditions can reduce the risk of nephritis developing. When inflammation is only mild, then treatment may not be necessary and regular monitoring is all that's needed. More severe cases may need antibiotics, corticosteroids, or immuno-suppressant drugs depending on the type and underlying cause of the nephritis.

Any underlying causative condition will also need to be treated if further damage to the kidneys is to be prevented.

Nephrectomy

This is the complete or partial removal of the kidney.

Polycystic kidney disease

Polycystic kidney disease (often shortened to PCKD or PKD) is the commonest inherited cause of kidney failure. It may be inherited from either your mother or your father. Sometimes they will not know that they carry the disease. Not everyone with PCKD gets trouble from their kidneys.

Haemodialysis

An artificial process by which the toxic waste products of food and excess water are removed from the body. Dialysis therefore takes over some of the work normally performed by healthy kidneys.

Dialyser

The filtering unit of a dialysis machine. The dialyser removes waste products and excess water from the blood.

Kidney/renal failure

Kidney failure, known medically as renal failure, is a condition in which the kidneys lose their ability to filter waste products from the blood adequately and to regulate the body's balance of salt and water.

Eventually, urine production may slow or stop, and waste products and water accumulate in the body.

This can lead to a potentially life-threatening overload of fluids (such as heart failure), a dangerous accumulation of waste products in the blood and extreme alterations in blood chemistry that can eventually affect the function of the heart and brain. Renal failure can be of recent onset (acute), long-standing (chronic) or end-stage, in which dialysis or a kidney transplant will be necessary to remain alive.