Benefits of a Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis

The term dialysis is not foreign to anyone in this era. This is due to the increase in the number of kidney failures at the level of the world population. What people do not know is that there is more than one type of dialysis procedure:

• Hemodialysis: Blood is purified outside the body using an artificial kidney device
• Peritoneal dialysis: Blood is purified inside the body using a natural membrane

People usually are acquainted with the procedure of hemodialysis because it is the most common type of dialysis done across the world but it is important for them to know that advancement in the medical world has led doctors to make the procedure of hemodialysis more efficient by introducing Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis (CAPD). The focus of this blog is to make you understand 7 things that you should know before getting CAPD. These five things will be the description of CAPD, the factors on which the dialysis is planned for a specific patient, the advantages of CAPD, the complications of CAPD, and lastly the difference between CAPD and CCPD.

What is CAPD

 In peritoneal dialysis, the blood is filtered inside the body of the patient using the peritoneum which is the inner membrane that lines the abdominal cavity. The peritoneum in this type of dialysis acts like a natural filter. The central dogma of the working process of this type of dialysis is that the dialysis fluid is put into the abdomen through a catheter. This fluid then removes the toxins from the blood by passing through the peritoneum.

To look into more detail there are five steps involved in the working of peritoneal dialysis:

• The peritoneal membrane separates the area where the dialysis fluid is to be placed from the area where the toxins are present with the blood
• Dialysis fluid is passed to the abdominal cavity using a catheter
• By the action of diffusion, the toxins are absorbed by the dialysis fluid through the peritoneal membrane
• Even water is passed from the blood to the fluid through the process of ultra-filtration
• The dialysis fluid containing toxins and water drained out from the other end of the catheter to create a space for the fill up of fresh dialysis fluid into the abdominal cavity

On what factors your dialysis is based on

After your evaluation, four main things become the deciding factors on the magnitude and frequency of dialysis suitable just for you. These four factors are:

• Your kidney function
• Your weight
• Your overall health
• Your reports of lab tests

The three things that are deduced from the evaluation of the above factors are;

The number of dialysis exchanges needed to be done per day, the type of dialysis fluid to be used, and the duration for which the dialysis fluid has to stay in your abdomen for each round.

Advantages of CAPD

• With this type of dialysis, you can be more efficient and mobile during the ongoing procedure. This gives you a way of having a workable lifestyle even during a complex methodology like dialysis
• As having dissatisfying meals can impact your mental health degradingly, peritoneal dialysis gives a possibility of having a lot more liberty in the diet than hemodialysis. This is because peritoneal dialysis is done more frequently in patients than hemodialysis
• Any type of dialysis is only a bridge between kidney failure and kidney transplant. Still, with peritoneal dialysis, the functionality of the kidney persists more than in other types of dialysis. this gives the patient more time to find a suitable kidney donor for themselves

Complications due to CAPD

• At the site from where the dialysis fluids exit from the abdominal cavity, the possibility of developing an infection remains high
• As the dialysis is to be held by the patients for longer periods, this can lead to the development of a hernia. The reason behind this is the persistent stress in the muscles due to the fluid
• The catheter through which the fluid is entered and exited from the body can get blocked sometimes.

All the complications of CAPD can be avoided by having an adequately trained staff to perform CAPD with much precision and hygiene on you.

How is CAPD different from CCPD

The basic difference between Continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) and Continuous cycling peritoneal dialysis is that in CAPD the exchange of dialysis fluid is done several times a day by the patient himself/ herself while in CCPD the same process of exchanging the fluid is done by a device named cycler at the time when the patient is in sleep.

CONCLUSION

The need for any type of dialysis represents that your kidney function is degraded to the level of not being able to work sufficiently. Choosing the best dialysis type for you until transplantation is a thing that must be discussed with the doctor. It is only after expert consultation that you can decide between hemodialysis and CAPD for yourself.

We at Alfa Kidney Care provide this consultation with all the other information related to kidneys.