Benign Kidney Disorders

What are kidney disorders?
The kidneys filter our blood, so the body keeps nutrients and gets rid of waste and extra water. When kidney diseases cause the kidneys to fail, these wastes build up in the blood and can cause damage to other parts of the body, such as the heart, blood vessels and skin.

Treatment of kidney disorders may involve dietary changes, lifestyle changes, anti-inflammatory drugs, and/or carefully controlling blood pressure and diabetes. For patients with end-stage kidney disease (when kidneys are no longer functioning), treatment usually involves dialysis (cleaning the blood by inserting a special fluid into the body, or by sending blood through a filtering machine) or kidney transplantation.

UHN’s Benign Kidney Disorder Care Area
UHN’s Benign Kidney Disorder Care Area diagnoses and treats mild to severe kidney disorders. Depending on the patient’s case, we aim to improve kidney function, slow down the progression of early kidney disease and help patients manage end-stage kidney failure through dialysis and/or transplantation.

For patients with kidney failure, we provide both peritoneal dialysis and all three forms of hemodialysis — in-hospital, home and nighttime hemodialysis. Our nighttime hemodialysis program is the second-largest in the world, and allows patients to undergo dialysis at home while they sleep.

Learning more about kidney disorders — and sharing this knowledge with patients
Our team includes physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, nurse educators, social workers, pharmacists and dieticians. Patient education is a high priority for our team — we focus on helping patients better understand their conditions, what their treatment options are and how to treat their symptoms at home.

We are actively involved in research to better understand kidney disorders, looking at how factors such as genetics and gender play a role. We are also constantly searching for ways to improve treatments, such as how to make dialysis as effective as possible. With research and education, we are helping more patients with kidney disorders improve their quality of life, regain energy and return to everyday activities.