5/16/11

Before dialysis machines, how did they treat people with kidney disease that didn't get a kidney transplant?


Before dialysis machines, how did they treat people with kidney disease that didn't get a kidney transplant?By medication only or were there other options?

Posted by my2boys
They unfortunately suffered until they succumb to the kidney disease. Thank God for today's medical advancement such as dialysis and insulin.

Posted by Billie77
Before dialysis machines and antibiotics there was very little that can be done for a person with kidney disease. Usually the person died. A good example of this is the late actress Jean Harlow died at 26 years of age from kidney failure, because there was no effective treatments. medicine has made incredible advancements in the last 50 years. People are living longer than ever before in history.

Posted by SA Writer
Dialysis predates transplants. Renal failure (either chronic or acute) was a fatal disease before WW II. Medication could do little other than ease the discomfort.

Posted by Luke
Prior to 1962 when dialysis became available there unfortunately was no long term treatment for kidney failure.

Posted by billp_seattle
We can assume that people have been dying of kidney disease since the beginning of human history but diseases as we understand them were not described as separate conditions until the 17 and 18 hundreds. Until then we can assume that kidney disease was treated with a wide variety of tactics, including natural laxatives and traditional 'cures'.

As we enter the modern age diseases begin to be classified by their symptoms. The associated symptoms in connection with kidney disease were first described in 1827 by noted English physician Richard Bright. Which is where we get the "old" name for kidney failure or nephritis: Bright's disease.

Since the 1800s, it has been established that the symptoms of Bright's disease, instead of being, as was formerly supposed, the result of one form of disease of the kidneys, may be dependent on various morbid conditions of those organs. Thus, the term Bright's disease, which is retained in medical nomenclature in honor of Dr. Bright, must be understood as having a strictly historical application.

Historically (1800s to the 1950s), acute (short term) Bright's disease was treated with local depletion (bleeding people), warm baths, diuretics, and laxatives. There was no successful treatment for chronic Bright's disease, though dietary modifications were sometimes suggested. One of the best-known people to die from Bright's Disease was poet Emily Dickinson, who died on May 15, 1886.

Add your own answer in the comments! Learn basic information on kidney disease from the experts at Kidney Disease Info Blog.


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