Kidney Disease

Frequently Asked Questions

13. What is kidney failure?

When your kidneys fail, they lose their ability to filter blood and remove waste and excess fluid from your body. Kidney failure (sometimes called end-stage renal disease, or ESRD) causes harmful waste and excess fluid to build up in your body. Your blood pressure may rise, and your hands and feet may swell. Since the kidneys have now stopped working, the goal is to find treatments that can replace kidney function. There are two main options for this: dialysis and transplantation.