Kidney diseases are silent killers, which can largely affect your quality of life. There are several ways to reduce the risk of developing kidney disease. “Kidney disease is mostly silent and thus neglected and not handled properly,” says Dr. Manju Aggarwal, Director and Head, Department of Nephrology and Kidney Transplantation, Artemis Health Institute. She went on to say that kidney disease is avoidable and that high-risk populations, such as those with diabetes and hypertension, should be educated and screened. Early detection and medical treatment can help to postpone the onset of severe renal failure.

Diagnosing renal illness can be a difficult experience for both the sufferer and those around them. It limits their capacity to engage in daily activities such as employment, travel and socialising. Patients with kidney disease, including those who require dialysis or transplantation, require additional assistance from society, patient groups, networks, government agencies and health insurance providers in the long run.

Kidneys are very important organs that remove waste, control blood pressure, make haemoglobin and maintain bone health, according to Dr. Rishit K. Harbada, Consultant Nephrologist, BSES MG Hospital, Andheri, S.R.V Hospital, Goregaon, Associate Consultant, Sir H.N Reliance, Foundation Hospital, Mumbai. He added, ”Symptoms or indicators of renal disease may not appear until 80 percent of your kidneys have been damaged”. As a result, early detection is critical. Controlling blood pressure, diabetes, eating properly, limiting alcohol intake, being active, avoiding over-the-counter drugs, painkillers, and regular follow-up are all critical for kidney health sharing precautionary measures in the session. 

Also read: Pain killers can damage kidneys.

According to Dr. Siddharth Vinod Lakhani, Consultant Nephrologist & Transplant Physician, Lakhani Kidney Clinic Prevention is better than cure,” Dr. Lakhani stated emphatically. “Let us work together to avoid and battle chronic renal disease”, he says.

Dr. Rajesh Kesari, Founder and Director, Total Care Control, Delhi–NCR, outlined his concern of the rising cases of kidney diseases in the nation and said, ”kidney disease has long been regarded as the most neglected chronic disorder”. A variety of communicable and noncommunicable diseases can cause kidney problems, and many patients with kidney disease do not have access to treatment. Renal disorders’ causes, consequences, and costs have implications for public health policy in all countries, as well as the problems that lie ahead.

The post Greater risks of Kidney disease if you have Diabetes and High Blood Pressure appeared first on Health Vision.

Burden of renal transplant is on the rise.Kidney transplant is a procedure done though surgery to place a healthy kidney from a live or deceased donor. The transplanted kidney takes over the work of two kidney that failed, so that the patient doesn’t need dialysis. Kidneys are bean shaped organs placed on either side of the spine just below the rib cage. The main function is to filter and remove excess waste, minerals and fluid from the blood by producing urine.

Kidney transplant is done when the kidneys lose the ability to filter and thus harmful level of fluid and waste accumulate in your body, which can raise the blood pressure and result in all kinds of symptoms like swelling of body, low hemoglobin, anorexia, Nausea, irritable itching, and easy fatiguability. During the transplant surgery, new kidney is placed in the lower abdomen and connects the artery and vein of the new kidney to new body’s artery and vein. The new kidney starts making urine as soon as the blood starts flowing through it. But sometimes it takes few weeks to start normally.

India’s position at Kidney transplant in the world:

The wait for new and right kidney can be very long sometime in India. Generally the transplanted kidneys comes from the died donors and some come from family members. About 2 lakh patients In India are waiting for organs with mere 15000 donors available. The ministry of health calculation says that the annual requirement for kidneys could range between 2-3 lakh with a mere 6,000 transplants occurring in reality.

The variance between the demand for and supply of kidneys has lead the government to push deceased donor or cadaver donations. The old statistics from the Indian Transplant Registry, a non-governmental initiative by the Indian Society of Organ Transplantation, says that out of the 21,395 kidneys transplanted in India between 1971 and 2015, only 783 were from cadaver or deceased donors.

Also the lack of awareness and hesitation from the family is some of the main reasons for lower cases of deceased donors in India. Well post 2012 there is significant increase in the organ donations. The live kidney transplant programme in India is evolved from the past 50 years and is currently the second largest program in numbers after the USA. The better immunosuppressive drugs and induction agents stop early rejection events and also there has been a various changes regarding using high dose steroids to prevent graft rejection, and this has resulted in lower incidence of postoperative complications after transplant surgery.

There has been vast changes in the methods also of transplant. Now there are minimal invasive methods for managing transplant surgery complications. Since 2011 there has been a rule in Indian law and amendments, that there is a provision of “required request” to the intensive care doctors to ask for organ donation in the event of brain death. As it also makes it mandatory to register it nationally and counsel relatives for organ donation. This has also improved the deceased rate of donation in India.

The responsibility of making donations happen is with hospitals. So in respect of making it success of this programme, the early identification, certification and maintenance of the potential donors in the the intensive care units is important.  To make it more success more  public hospitals should participate as  mostly victims with severe brain injury due to road traffic accidents finish up in these public hospitals.

The states that has generally relatively better are from south India. In north, Chandigarh has done well in terms of donors as per million population. As of now, the kidney transplant costs between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 6 lakh in private hospitals in the country. And post treatment, the monthly cost is around Rs 15000 and life long medicines Rs 10,000 per month.

The records in Indian Transplant Registry reported that hat between 1971 and 2015, a total of 21,395 kidneys were transplanted in India, out of which a mere number of 783 kidneys belonged to deceased or cadaver donors. It also due to lack of knowledge of the process and apprehension among Indian families, thereby decreasing the number of deceased donors in the country.

 The report also says that more than 2.5 lakh people suffer from last-stage kidney diseases every year. In that 7 out of 10 patients go for dialysis and nearly 6 out of those 10 cant continue due to heavy treatment fees. There are dialysis centres but major based in cities. India is the diabetic capital of the world, and increase in the diabetes also leads to proportionate increase in the chronic kidney disease. With the patients suffering from kidney disease and come up at end stage dialysis and kidney transplant is the only option.

Lifestyle modifications to prevent kidney damage:

The theme of  World Kidney Day is to raise awareness on the increasing burden of kidney disorders and the ways to prevent it, with an aim to highlight the importance of preventive interventions available. While prevention can be categorized into three phases namely, primary, secondary and tertiary, lifestyle practices play a vital role. Primary prevention include certain lifestyle modifications to prevent the onset of kidney damage. Secondary prevention refers to timely diagnosis and optimization of leading factors to kidney damage like hypertension and diabetes. Tertiary prevention is to manage the kidney disease in order to control its progression.

Post the transplant, one of the major challenges is to sensitize the patient about the importance of the post-post-transplant care and due to any negligence which can be worsen the condition further and can be fatal. Kidney transplants and dialysis are two meaningful replacement therapies available, which can provide good quality of life or longevity to the patients suffering from kidney failure at affordable costs. Never let any kidney patient feel helpless or as if ‘the end of life’ is knocking at the doors.

Dr. Ramesh Jain
HOD – Centre for Kidney Transplant & Renal Sciences
Saroj Super Speciality Hospital, Delhi

The post Kidney transplant-do you know where India stands? appeared first on Health Vision.