Kidney Care

Rely on the medical professionals at Cottage Health to deliver top-quality care to diagnose and treat kidney disorders. The kidneys are located on either side of the spine in the mid-back area and function to remove water, excess salt and waste from the body. Our services for kidney care include dialysis, therapeutic apheresis and lithotripsy.

Dialysis

Our inpatients who are suffering from kidney failure are treated by our dialysis department. Dialysis can perform some of the functions done by healthy kidneys. It removes waste, salt and extra water build-up in the body. It maintains a safe level of chemicals in the blood and helps to control blood pressure.

Cottage Health is equipped to deliver hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis:

  • Hemodialysis - An artificial kidney is used to remove waste and extra chemicals and fluid from the blood.
  • Peritoneal Dialysis - The blood is cleaned inside the body by slowly filling the abdominal area with dialysate through a catheter

Therapeutic Apheresis

Therapeutic apheresis (“to remove”) is performed to take away a component of the blood that contributes to an illness. During apheresis, blood is removed safely from the body and sent to sterile equipment, where it is then separated into various components, such as red cells, white cells and plasma. Cottage Health performs hundreds of therapeutic apheresis treatments per year that include the following:

  • Red blood cell exchange (erythrocytapheresis)
  • Therapeutic plasma exchange (plasmapheresis
  • White cell depletion (leukapheresis)
  • Platelet depletion (plateletpheresis)

Kidney Stone Treatment/ Lithotripsy

Kidney stones are one of the most common and painful kidney disorders. About 10 percent of people will develop a kidney stone at some point in their lives. For many, stones become a chronic problem. People who get one stone are more likely to develop others.

Extracorporeal Shockwave Lithotripsy (ESWL), usually referred to as lithotripsy, represents the most advanced and least invasive process of eliminating and treating renal/kidney stones, proximal stones, and midureteral stones. The shockwaves are generated by our state-of-the-art ESWL medical equipment, which creates a change in the stone's density, causing fragmentation and release of the stone.