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Health > Conditions > D > Dialysis                           
 DialysisDialysis is needed when the kidneys stop working properly. This can happen for different reasons. Find out more about kidney problems What does dialysis do?Dialysis does the job that is normally done by the kidneys - it removes waste products from the blood and any extra water from the body. Is all dialysis the same?No, there are two types of dialysis: haemodialysis, which filters out waste by passing blood through an artificial kidney machine, and peritoneal dialysis, where a catheter is inserted into the abdomen. HaemodialysisHaemodialysis takes blood from the body to be filtered. It uses a synthetic (man-made) filter in a dialysis machine to filter (clean) blood. This has to be done in hospital Peritoneal dialysisPeritoneal dialysis does not take blood from the body to be filtered. Instead, it uses the lining of the abdomen (peritoneum) to filter blood. This can be done almost anywhere, so there's no need to go into hospital each time.
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