Can I Stop Dialysis Once I Start

Can I stop dialysis once start? This is one of the most commonly concerned topics for kidney failure patients. Dialysis as of now is the most popular treatment for kidney failure, but it is not a perfect dialysis, as long-term taking of dialysis always present fatal side effects. Therefore, almost all the kidney failure want to know whether they can stop dialysis once they start.

As a matter of fact, kidney failure patients can stop dialysis after they do it for some time, but unfortunately, not everyone with dialysis is allowed to stop it. Especially for people who has done dialysis for a very long time, they need to require their doctor's approval before they stop dialysis.

Dialysis is a replacement and it replaces failed kidney to filter blood outside the body. Therefore, kidney function does not increase after dialysis. Besides, our body produces wastes over time, so if one takes dialysis as the major treatment, he needs to do it regularly.

Long-term dialysis causes serious complications like extreme low blood pressure, coma and heart failure. In addition, some patients may suffer from severe muscle cramp, headache and constipation after dialysis, so dialysis is not a pleasant treatment for kidney failure and also this is the reason why patients want to stop dialysis after they do it for some time.

Actually, whether one can stop dialysis depends on his illness condition. Kidney failure patients do dialysis because their kidneys fail to excrete wastes produced by their body. Therefore, as long as their kidney function is recovered and strong enough to discharge a certain of wastes, they can stop dialysis. Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR) is the dominant index used to reflecting how well the kidney function. Generally speaking, kidney failure patients can get rid of dialysis only if their GFR is not lower than 15. In recent years, Immunotherapy has been proven to be effective in recovering kidney function. Although not everyone with dialysis will definitely get rid of dialysis after this treatment, the interval between dialysis indeed can be prolonged effectively.

Can you stop dialysis once you start not depends on your doctor, but your kidney function. Therefore, you want to live away from dialysis, repair kidney damages and then recover kidney function as much as possible.