Renal Failure
Kidneys are paired vital organs located behind the abdominal cavity, at about the level of the bottom of the ribcage. They perform about a dozen physiologic functions, and are fairly easily damaged. Kidney failure results in the slow accumulation of nitrogenous wastes, salts, water, and disruption of the body's normal pH balance. Until the Second World War, kidney failure generally meant death for the patient. Several insights into renal function and acute renal failure were made during the war, not least of which would be Bywaters and Beall's descriptions of pigment-induced nephropathy drawn from their clinical experiences during the London Blitz.
Read more about this topic: Artificial Kidney
Famous quotes containing the word failure:
“Human beings are compelled to live within a lie, but they can be compelled to do so only because they are in fact capable of living in this way. Therefore not only does the system alienate humanity, but at the same time alienated humanity supports this system as its own involuntary masterplan, as a degenerate image of its own degeneration, as a record of people’s own failure as individuals.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)