What is the purpose of kidney dialysis?
Dialysis can be used in the treatment of patients suffering from poisoning or overdose, in order to quickly remove drugs from the bloodstream. Its most prevalent application, however, is for patients with temporary or permanent kidney failure. For patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD), whose kidneys are no longer capable of adequately removing fluids and wastes from their body or of maintaining the proper level of certain kidney-regulated chemicals in the bloodstream, dialysis is the only treatment option available outside of kidney transplantation. In 1996 in the United States, over 200,000 people underwent regular dialysis treatments to manage their ESRD. Source: The Gale Group. Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine, 3rd ed.
