Renal Replacement Therapy

Renal replacement therapy is a term used to encompass life-supporting treatments for renal failure.

It includes:

• hemodialysis,
• peritoneal dialysis,
• hemofiltration and
• renal transplantation.

These treatments will not cure chronic kidney disease. In the context of chronic kidney disease, they are to be regarded as life-extending treatments (though if chronic kidney disease is managed well with dialysis, and a compatible transplant is found early and is a success, the clinical course can be quite favorable). In certain acute conditions or injuries resulting in failure, a person who likewise had a good response to dialysis, who got a kidney relatively quickly if indicated- and whose body did not reject the transplanted compatible kidney- and who has no other significant health problems, could very well survive for many years, with relatively good kidney function, before needing intervention again). Early dialysis (and, if indicated, early renal transplantation) in acute renal failure usually brings more favorable outcomes. It may even bring resolution of renal failure in some acute cases, though it would be very unusual for a person to regain total or near-total kidney function- usually some degree of impairment remains.