Edinburgh Napier University

  This chapter provides the reader with a detailed discussion of all aspects of renal physiology and its relationship to important pathophysiological processes in renal disease, and some brief discussion on related nursing observations. It first explores the normal renal anatomy and physiology, and then deals with disease processes causing advanced kidney disease. The chapter illustrates how altered renal physiology can affect the whole body and, indeed, how other diseases can affect kidney function. Chronic kidney disease is a result of a number of pathological processes causing irreversible damage to kidney tissue. There is a mass destruction of nephrons, so that the kidneys are unable to maintain fluid and electrolyte balance and excrete waste products from the body. The most common causes of advanced kidney disease resulting in renal replacement therapy in the UK are diabetes mellitus, glomerulonephritis, hypertension, pyelonephritis, polycystic kidney, and renal vascular disease.