What Does 5% Kidney Function Mean?

A:

Sorry to hear that. 5% kidney function means kidney failure, so I am afraid I have to say your sister needs dialysis to maintain her life.

Usually, kidney function is measured through GFR (Glomerular Filtration Rate) and the normal range of it should be in 90 to 130. Kidney function decreases when there is kidney damage and in general, when GFR is lower than 15, patients are suggested to have dialysis or kidney transplant.

Kidneys are important internal excretion function. They help us discharge various wastes that existing in blood and once they are damaged, wastes build up in our blood. These wastes flow with our blood and they may threaten every our organ, so it is necessary to clean our blood once kidneys fail to work.

Dialysis is a medical procedure in which blood flow out of patient's body and then flow into body again after being filtrated by a machine outside the body. Dialysis is the best method to discharge wastes temporarily and it usually lasts 4 to 5 hours every time. However, as dialysis only helps to clean blood and cannot repair kidney damages, once kidney failure patients need to do dialysis regularly. For some patients, they may need to do dialysis 1 time a week, but for some others, they may need to do dialysis 2 or 3 times a week. The frequency of patients do dialysis depends on their residual kidney function. Usually, the more the residual kidney function, the lower the frequency that patients do dialysis.

Without timely clean of blood, various fatal complications like heart failure and brain diseases will be finally caused. As for your sister's case, I recommend her to go to specialist directly and I believe she still can live a very long time on the right and effective dialysis.