Peritoneal Kidney Dialysis

Basu, Arunabha; Lim, Esther; Zhou, Sherry; Zhu, Charles

Peritoneal Kidney Dialysis

Abstract

Chronic kidney disease is a public health problem that afflicts over a tenth of the United States adult population. In this report, we describe the evaluation and analysis of peritoneal dialysis as a method of treatment for chronic kidney disease patients on the computational level. Using COMSOL Multiphysics and Simulation, we modeled the peritoneal cavity and surrounding blood vessels as a 2D slab using a thin-wall assumption and simulated urea mass transfer from the capillary bed through the peritoneal membrane and into the dialysate. Literature values for parameters such as urea diffusivity, bulk flow due to osmotic pressure difference, blood urea concentration, and bodily urea generation were used as modeling parameters. Overall, our results reflected the ability of peritoneal dialysis to adequately remove waste urea from the body. With a drainage/infusion cycle every 5 hours, urea concentration can be maintained at a relatively constant level as peritoneal dialysis removes systemically generated urea. Alternatively, a greater number of shorter peritoneal dialysis sessions removed a significantly higher quantity of urea, resulting in an overall decrease in blood urea concentration. Our sensitivity analysis reflected the significance of certain parameters in peritoneal dialysis and therefore the areas that can be emphasized in such treatment to achieve varying results. Dialysate volume, peritoneal membrane surface area, and bodily urea generation most severely affected post-dialysis urea concentration while urea diffusivity through the capillary bed, peritoneal membrane thickness, and initial urea concentration had little impact.

Date Issued

2010-05-21T18:33:38Z

Types

term paper