How does osmosis and diffusion relate to kidney dialysis?
Dialysis is the process of removing waste products from the blood. This removal is normally done by the kidneys, but if they are impaired (damaged), then a dialysis machine (also called an artificial kidney) can perform a similar function. There are two types of dialysis: hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. In hemodialysis, blood is passed through an artificial kidney (hemodialyzer) to clean it. Peritoneal dialysis uses a filtering process similar to hemodialysis, but the blood is cleaned inside the body rather than in a machine. I shall discuss hemodialysis. In hemodialysis, blood is removed from the body and circulated through an extracorporeal fluid circuit (outside the body), then returned to the patient. This circuit includes a hemodialyzer, which is where the blood is cleaned. The hemodialyzer contains a selectively permeable membrane, which is a filter that allows fluids and waste (uremic toxins) to pass through, but prevents the exchange of blood components, microorganisms an
