Osmosis and Dialysis

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Osmosis and Dialysis

What is dialysis?
During osmosis, fluid moves from areas of high water concentration to lower
water concentration across a semipermeable membrane until equilibrium. In dialysis,
excess fluid moves from blood to the dialysate through a membrane until the fluid level
is the same between blood and dialysate. Small waste products in your blood flow
through the membrane/filter and into the dialysate. The three principles that make
dialysis work are diffusion, osmosis, and ultrafiltration. In medicine, Dialysis is a
procedure to remove waste products and excess fluid from the blood when the kidneys
stop working properly. It often involves diverting blood to a machine to be cleaned.

What is the significance of dialysis in the body?

When your kidneys fail, dialysis keeps your body in balance by: removing waste,
salt and extra water to prevent them from building up in the body. Keeping a safe level
of certain chemicals in your blood, such as potassium, sodium a nd bicarbonate, thus
helping to control blood pressure.

Osmotic pressure: defined as the pressure that must be applied to the solution’s side
to stop fluid movement when a semipermeable membrane separates a solution from
pure water.

Osmolarity: Osmolality is a test that measures the concentration of all chemical


particles found in the fluid part of blood. Osmolality can also be measured with a urine
test.

Physiological salt solution: it is a solution similar to blood plasma in salt composition


and osmotic pressure. They provide isotonicity, nutrition and act as a buffer when drugs
are added.

Isotonic solution: A solution that has the same salt concentration (0.9%) as cells and
blood. Isotonic solutions are commonly used as intravenously infused fluids in
hospitalized patients.

Hypotonic solution: A hypotonic solution is a solution that has lower osmotic pressure
than another solution to which it is compared. It may also mean a solution that contains
a lower amount of solute as compared with the solute concentration in the other solution
across a semipermeable membrane.
Hypertonic solution: A solution that contains more dissolved particles (such as salt
and other electrolytes) than is found in normal cells and blood. For example, hypertonic
solutions are used for soaking wounds.
Hemolysis: the breakdown or destruction of red blood cells so that the contained
oxygen-carrying pigment hemoglobin is freed into the surrounding medium.

Crenation: used to describe what happens to a cell or other object when it is exposed
to a hypertonic solution

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