To further lower the chance of rejection, people with kidney transplants must take powerful drugs to suppress their immune systems for the rest of their lives. Having a kidney transplant is a serious matter. The operation is a major one, and the drugs are dangerous with many side effects. But people who get kidney transplants are more likely to be alive after 5 years than people who stay on dialysis. Dialysis Dialysis is a way of cleaning the blood with an artificial kidney.
Dialysis is the more common form of kidney-replacement therapy.
No matter which type is chosen, the person undergoing dialysis needs to work closely with the health-care team to keep diabetes under control. In hemodialysis, an artificial kidney removes waste from the blood. To get the blood to the artificial kidney, there has to be access to the blood vessels. The place where blood is drawn is called the access connection site. Or the surgeon may implant a straight piece of tubing.