May also be called: Kidney Problem, Renal Disease
Kidney disease is when there's a problem with the kidneys and they can't do a good job of filtering waste.
There are many kinds of kidney disease. Reasons why people get kidney problems are:
Sometimes, doctors don't know exactly why someone gets kidney disease, but they can still treat it.
Doctors usually treat kidney disease (or the problems that cause it to happen) with medicine or surgery. Some kidney diseases eventually lead to kidney failure. People with kidney failure need dialysis or a transplant.
A few kidney diseases don't need to be treated because they're not causing problems. Doctors just watch to be sure people are OK.
Most people have two kidneys. When a problem is in just one kidney, the kidney that's working well takes over to get rid of the body's wastes.
All A to Z dictionary entries are regularly reviewed by KidsHealth medical experts.