Graft See Arteriovenous graft . The percentage of red blood cells in whole blood. Without enough red blood cells to carry oxygen to the tissues, patients feel tired and listless. A type of dialysis in which the patient's blood is removed from the body and cleansed by a dialyzer, i.e., an artificial kidney. The patient's blood travels through needles placed into a specially created blood vessel.
Blood is passed through the dialyzer, cleansed, and then returned to the body.
Hypertension High blood pressure. This can be caused by too much salt intake, fluid build-up, or too much of the hormone renin, produced by the kidneys. Hypertension can cause headache, blurred vision, blindness, heart damage, and stroke. Hypotension Low blood pressure. This can occur if large amounts of fluid are removed from the blood vessels too quickly during dialysis.