Dialysis

When your kidneys are healthy, they clean your blood. They also make hormones that keep your bones strong and your blood healthy. When your kidneys fail, you need treatment to replace the work your kidneys used to do. Unless you have a kidney transplant, you will need a treatment called dialysis.

What is Dialysis?

Dialysis is a treatment method that replicates the function of the kidneys when they are failing. In healthy individuals, the kidneys work to filter and remove waste products, excess fluid, salts and toxins from the blood.

Renal Replacement Therapy

Dialysis Types

Benefits and Disadvantages of Dialysis

Indications for Dialysis

Latest Dialysis News and Research

Trial offers hope for babies with fetal kidney failure

Women diagnosed early in pregnancy with a fetus lacking adequate kidney function to make the urine that serves as vital amniotic fluid have long faced virtually no chance of their fetus's survival after birth.

8 Jul 2026

Study identifies new target for Parkinson's disease neuroprotection

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common form of neurodegenerative disease and afflicts more than ten million people worldwide. While current therapies address disease symptoms, they do not prevent the underlying neurodegeneration that drives the disease.

8 Jul 2026

Study identifies promising drug target to prevent neurodegenerative conditions

6 Jul 2026

European project receives €15 million to study phage-based therapies

Bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics. One alternative is treatment with viruses that exclusively infect bacteria, known as phages.

25 Jun 2026

First human bladder transplant patient thrives one year after surgery

One year after the first human bladder transplant, the patient is thriving and the UCLA Health surgeon who performed the operation already has completed a second successful bladder transplant, laying a solid path for a field of surgery that until now has not been feasible.

24 Jun 2026

Researchers identify molecular cause of age-related cognitive decline

A research team from University Hospitals, Case Western Reserve University and the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center has identified a critical molecular cause of age-related cognitive decline, potentially paving the way for new treatments to protect brain health as we age.

23 Jun 2026

How electrical engineering ensures accurate calibration and patient safety

Discover how electrical engineering supports calibration accuracy, device reliability, and patient safety in critical healthcare applications.

From Mesa Labs, Inc. 22 Jun 2026

Many kidney transplant candidates fail to reach the national waitlist

Nearly half of Americans with kidney failure who are referred for transplantation never begin the process required to be considered for a new organ, a new study shows, while less than a fifth actually complete the assessment and get on the waitlist.

21 Jun 2026

Massage gun use around eyes may cause serious retinal injuries

Using a massage gun on or around the eyes risks major tearing and bruising to the retina-the light sensitive tissue at the back of the eye-doctors warn in the online journal BMJ Case Reports after treating a young man who had used one of these devices.

18 Jun 2026

Semaglutide, omega-3s and diet shift epigenetic aging clocks in human studies

A systematic review identified 41 human studies evaluating interventions targeting next-generation DNA methylation-based aging clocks. Pharmaceutical, lifestyle, supplement, clinical, and psychosocial interventions shifted some clock outputs, but these biomarkers remain investigational rather than proven clinical surrogates.

16 Jun 2026

Lab-grown cell models reveal urate triggers vital renal water channels

Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a previously unrecognized way the kidneys regulate water balance - an advance that could lead to improved treatments for polycystic kidney disease (PKD) and other disorders. The study, led by Fouad Chebib, M.D., a nephrologist at Mayo Clinic, is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

16 Jun 2026

Trial shows safety of TTV-guided immunosuppression in kidney transplant recipients

An international research team coordinated by the Medical University of Vienna has demonstrated in a clinical trial that Torque-Teno-virus-guided dosing of immunosuppressants in kidney transplant recipients is safe.

8 Jun 2026

Common hypertension drugs tied to worse kidney outcomes in T2D patients

New research presented at the 63rd ERA Congress suggests that a widely used class of blood pressure medications may be associated with poorer kidney outcomes in people with type 2 diabetes (T2D), even among patients already receiving modern kidney-protective treatments.

4 Jun 2026

Repurposed cancer therapy enables successful kidney transplantation

A pioneering clinical trial has successfully enabled three patients with end-stage kidney disease to receive previously improbable kidney transplants.

4 Jun 2026

Semaglutide boosts well-being among patients with diabetes and CKD

New findings from the landmark FLOW trial, presented at the 63rd ERA Congress, show that once-weekly semaglutide significantly improved health-related quality of life in adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) and chronic kidney disease (CKD), equivalent to around eight additional days in full health per year.

3 Jun 2026

Novel CAR T treatment makes previously impossible kidney transplants possible

A pioneering clinical trial has successfully enabled two patients with end-stage kidney disease to receive previously improbable kidney transplants.

3 Jun 2026

Medicaid expansion associated with lower death rates in young adults with kidney failure

Among young adults with kidney failure, the expansion of Medicaid following the Affordable Care Act signed into law in 2010 was associated with substantial declines in one-year death rates, researchers from Brown University found in a new study.

11 May 2026

Hantavirus scare on cruise ship prompts WHO response

Hantavirus infections among cruise ship passengers have sparked a global health response, highlighting the need for effective outbreak management strategies.

7 May 2026

Bariatric surgery improves outcomes for patients with obesity and chronic kidney disease

Metabolic and bariatric surgery, also known as weight-loss surgery, dramatically improves outcomes for patients with obesity and chronic kidney disease (CKD), significantly reducing the risk of kidney failure, major cardiovascular events and death, according to new research presented here today at the annual meeting of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

5 May 2026

New blood filtering treatment safely extends pregnancy in severe preeclampsia

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University investigators have developed and successfully tested a new treatment for pregnant women with severe early preeclampsia, a leading cause of premature birth as well as maternal and fetal death.

27 Apr 2026