Kidneys Health Topics Clinical Trials Health Links Kidneys Rate of kidney failure in America United States statistics from 1997 show more than 214,000 people used dialysis treatments to stay alive, because they had kidney failure. Kidney failure happens to many different people for different reasons. Anyone can have kidney failure any age, any race, any walk of life.
Dialysis is performed worldwide.
They are shaped like a kidney bean and are attached to your blood system by two blood vessels called renal arteries. Each kidney is attached to the bladder by a tube called a ureter. Urine is made in the kidneys and stored in the bladder. When you urinate, urine empties from the bladder through another tube, the urethra, to the outside of the body. The kidneys perform the vital jobs of cleaning the blood and removing extra fluid.