A complete guide to caring for your kidneys and maximizing your health. Kidney disease occurs when your kidneys are damaged and no longer function as well as they should. In the past, it was fatal, but thanks to new treatments, including dialysis and transplantation, people can live long and healthy lives. This book provides everything you need to know to help you cope with your kidney disease and maximize your health. Walter A. Hunt, a medical researcher who had kidney disease and received a kidney transplant, walks you through what science says about how you can take care of your kidneys, including what foods to avoid and what treatment options may be best for you. Also included are recommendations to help you sleep and feel better along with overall health advice. In this latest edition, Hunt adds new sections on emerging subjects, including * coping skills for caregivers * kidney disease in children * environmental causes of chronic kidney failure * conservative care for those who wish to decline treatment * related conditions like gout, depression, and sleep disturbances * diet after transplantation * how best to work with your care team * insurance issues * potential new treatments A useful guide for the healthcare professionals who work with individuals with kidney problems.

The kidney is innervated with efferent sympathetic nerve fibers reaching the renal vasculature, the tubules, the juxtaglomerular granular cells, and the renal pelvic wall. The renal sensory nerves are mainly found in the renal pelvic wall. Increases in efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity reduce renal blood flow and urinary sodium excretion by activation of 1-adrenoceptors and increase renin secretion rate by activation of 1-adrenoceptors. In response to normal physiological stimulation, changes in efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity contribute importantly to homeostatic regulation of sodium and water balance. The renal mechanosensory nerves are activated by stretch of the renal pelvic tissue produced by increases in renal pelvic tissue of a magnitude that may occur during increased urine flow rate. Under normal conditions, the renal mechanosensory nerves activated by stretch of the sensory nerves elicits an inhibitory renorenal reflex response consisting of decreases in efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity leading to natriuresis. Increasing efferent sympathetic nerve activity increases afferent renal nerve activity which, in turn, decreases efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity by activation of the renorenal reflexes. Thus, activation of the afferent renal nerves buffers changes in efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity in the overall goal of maintaining sodium balance. In pathological conditions of sodium retention, impairment of the inhibitory renorenal reflexes contributes to an inappropriately increased efferent renal sympathetic nerve activity in the presence of sodium retention. In states of renal disease or injury, there is a shift from inhibitory to excitatory reflexes originating in the kidney. Studies in essential hypertensive patients have shown that renal denervation results in long-term reduction in arterial pressure, suggesting an important role for the efferent and afferent renal nerves in hypertension.

This volume includes all procedures and practices relating to the selection of organ donors, removal of organs, preservation and allocation for a successful transplantation. The improving preservation solutions as well as the improving survival rates of transplant patients should make it a useful book on all aspects of transplantation. The chapters are divided into four sections: donor conditioning and surgery; organ preservation; allocation and logistics; ethics and legislation in organ donation. The growing awareness of the need for organ donation and adaptation of laws, as well as the increasing efforts of the transplantation organizations to stimulate organ donation, makes this text a timely publication. This book is aimed at medical specialists in any hospital involved, or potentially involved, in organ procurement, transplant co-ordinators and administrators, transplant surgeons, nephrologists and other organ specialists and researchers. The chapters on surgical techniques are illustrated with original artwork by Bernard Tardieu.

This comprehensive guide to polycystic kidney disease captures the growing knowledge of this common, potentially-fatal and hereditary disease. The first two sections of the book provide an overview of PKD gene structures, mutations and pathophysiologic mechanisms. This is followed by chapters focused on PKD's clinical features, including renal and extrarenal manifestations, and appropriate management of patients. The final section covers current clinical trials and emerging therapies in PKD. Authored by experts in the field, this book provides the clinician and researcher with critical information on basic and translational science and clinical approaches in one concise resource.