Chronic Kidney Disease - Term Paper Example

For these reasons, chronic kidney disease is considered a disease because it affects the health of an individual. Chronic kidney disease is a chief health concern problem because the prevalence of the disease grows at a yearly rate of 8%, and expends 2% of the worldwide health spending (López-Novoa, Martínez-Salgado, Rodríguez-Peña, & López-Hernández, 2010). In the United States, about 13% of the populace suffers from this condition. As the prevalence of chronic renal disease rises, health care providers are tasked with the management of the multifaceted medical complications that patients with CKD face.

This paper takes a detailed look at the pathophysiology, causes, symptoms and management of chronic kidney disease. The central role of the kidney is to sift nitrogenous wastes from ingested food and metabolic activities, as well as surplus fluids from the blood. The kidneys, therefore, play an important role in fluid and electrolyte balance. The nephron is the elementary working component of the kidney. A normal kidney has about one million nephrons. Each nephron possesses a clump of glomerular capillaries called the glomerulus where the filtration of blood takes place.

The nephron also has a lengthy tubule where the filtered fluid is transformed into urine as it is transported into the pelvis (Guyton & Hall, 2006). The renal arteries branch into interlobar arteries and two other arteries and finally into afferent arterioles that supply the glomerulus in the nephron through the glomerular arterioles, which join together to form the efferent arterioles that exit the glomerulus. Urine, which carries the waste products filtered by the kidney is produced in three main phases namely ultrafiltration, reabsorption and secretion.

The kidneys also excrete strange chemicals, drug substances and metabolites produced from hormones. Such substances include urea from the metabolism of amino acids and creatinine