In: Anatomy and Physiology
Describe the general processes involved in hemodialysis therapy including the two concentration gradients that act independently between blood plasma & the dialysis fluid.
Hemodialysis.
In this process, blood is taken out from the the main artery, mixed with an anticoagulant, such as heparin, and than pumped into the apparatus called dialyser. In this apparatus blood flows through channels, or tubes made of cellophane. The membrane is impermeable to macromolecules, such as plasma proteins, but permeable to small solutes such as urea, uric acid creatine and mineral ions. The membrane separates the blood flowing inside the tube and dialyzing fluid ( dialysate), which has the same composition as that of plasma, except the nitrogenous wastes. The cellophane membrane allows the passage of molecules based on concentration gradient. As nitrogenous wastes are absent in the dialyzing fluid, these substance from the blood freely move out there by clearing the blood of its wastes. This process is called dialysis. The cleared blood is pumped back to the body through a vein after adding antihaparin to it.