Kidney transplant and dialysis are two options for patients with kidney failure. A kidney transplant involves surgically implanting a donor kidney by connecting the artery, vein and ureter. The transplant takes about 3-4 hours under general anesthesia. Dialysis works by diffusing solutes and fluid across a semi-permeable membrane from the blood to a dialysate fluid to remove waste, with hemodialysis being the most common type where blood is cleaned in a dialysis machine and returned to the body.

1. Options for Kidney Failure Patient.Kidney TransplantDefinition- Kidney transplant: Replacement of a diseased, damaged, or missing kidney with a donor kidney.Procedure- During the transplant operation, the kidney recipient is typically under general anesthesia and administered antibiotics to prevent possible infection. A catheter is placed in the bladder before surgery begins. An incision is made in the flank of the patient, and the surgeon implants the kidney above the pelvic bone and below the existing, non-functioning kidney by suturing the kidney artery and vein to the patient's iliac artery and vein. The ureter of the new kidney is attached directly to the kidney recipient's bladder. Once the new kidney is attached, the patient's existing, diseased kidneys may or may not be removed, depending on the circumstances surrounding the kidney failure. Barring any complications, the transplant operation takes about three to four hours.

2. Diagram

3. DialysisDefinition-Dialysis works on the principles of the diffusion of solutes and ultrafiltration of fluid across a semi-permeable membrane. Diffusion describes a property of substances in water. Substances in water tend to move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration. Blood flows by one side of a semi-permeable membrane, and a dialysate, or special dialysis fluid, flows by the opposite side. A semipermeable membrane is a thin layer of material that contains various sized holes, or pores. Smaller solutes and fluid pass through the membrane, but the membrane blocks the passage of larger substances (for example, red blood cells, large proteins).How Dialysis Works-Hemodialysisis the most common form of dialysis. It involves being connected to a dialysis machine, sometimes called an artificial kidney, where the patient's blood is extracted from their body, passed through the machine, cleaned and returned. The process uses a fluid called dialysate to remove the waste from the blood. Both the blood and the dialysate are pumped through the machine. The blood never touches the dialysate. Waste is passed from the blood to the dialysate through a series of membranes within the machine. The dialysate removes the waste and the clean blood returns to the body.

4. Diagram of Dialysis.