Excretory Products and Their Elimination - Notes | Class 11 | Part 5: Disorders of Excretory System
Disorders of Excretory System
Uremia: Accumulation of urea in blood due to malfunction of kidney. It may lead to kidney failure (renal failure).
Renal calculi: Stone or insoluble mass of crystallized salts (oxalates, etc.) formed within the kidney.
Glomerulonephritis: Inflammation of glomeruli.
Hemodialysis
It is a process of removal of urea in patients with uremia.
The dialyzing unit (artificial kidney) contains a coiled cellophane tube surrounded by dialyzing fluid. It has same composition of plasma except nitrogenous wastes.
Blood drained from a convenient artery is pumped into dialyzing unit after adding anticoagulant like heparin.
The porous cellophane membrane of the tube allows the passage of molecules based on concentration gradient.
As nitrogenous wastes are absent in dialyzing fluid, these substances freely move out, thereby clearing the blood.
The purified blood is pumped back to the body through a vein after adding anti-heparin to it.
Kidney Transplantation
It is the ultimate method in the correction of acute renal failures.
A functioning kidney is taken from a donor.
It is better to receive kidney from a close relative to minimize chances of rejection by immune system of host.
