Nephrology / Hemodialysis

In this department patients with hypertension, patients with diseases that lead to kidney dysfunction, patients with disturbances of the electrolytes and patients with urinary tract infection are treated. Moreover patients with increased loss of proteins in the urine, with erythrocytes in the urine and patients with kidney transplants are treated. The out patient clinic for kidney transplants has developed into a big part of the nephrology out patient clinic. Patients who need a kidney transplant in the future are examined and prepared for the transplantation in this clinic. The exams are done for determining the diagnosis and the following treatment. Complex or difficult diagnostic procedures are done on the ward. As for example a kidney biopsy and the examination of the kidney vessels (kidneyarteriography). Some kidney diseases have to be treated with i.v. lines to administer certain antibiotics, chemotherapeutics, antibodies or blood products. This can only be done in an in patient setting. In patients with kidney transplants on immunosuppressive therapy or also in patients with other kidney diseases, complications can occur (for example infections with rare agents, fever of unknown origin, deterioration of kidney function), that need to be treated in an inpatient setting. The course of arterial hypertension is sometimes so severe that only in an inpatient setting the strongest antihypertensive medication can be safely administered. Renal insufficiency can make the preparation for hemodialysis necessary; for that the patient is usually admitted to the nephrology ward. If it is planned to do peritoneal dialysis instead of hemodialysis, the placement of a peritoneal catheter and the primary training for dialysis are done in association with the nephrology ward. The dialysis treatments are carried out in the hemodialysis centre, as long as the patient is on the ward, he/she is taken there from the ward, later patients will go there as out patients if treatment is still necessary.

Other conditions that make an in patient treatment necessary are pyelonephritis, narrowing of kidney arteries, thrombosis of kidney veins, bleeding at the kidney capsule, kidney dysfunction in addition to pulmonal and joint disease, severe dehydration, as well as advanced disturbances electrolytes like potassium ( severely elevated or lowered), calcium (severely elevated or lowered) sodium, magnesium and phosphate.