Dr. Thomas Nickolas, MD, MS, a kidney specialist (nephrologist) at New York-Presbyterian Hospital sat down and chatted with GetHealthyHarlem.org about the different types of treatments to help a person whose kidneys are no longer working.

Q: What is dialysis?

A: Dialysis is something that you have to do when your kidneys don't work at all. This usually happens when you've had kidney disease for a long time and it's so bad that your kidneys can't clear the toxins or salt out of your body which means they can't keep your blood pressure stable anymore. When a person receives dialysis, a machine cleanses their blood in the way that a kidney should be doing.

There are two types of dialysis: hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis.  In hemodialysis, we hook a person's vein up to a machine; the machine takes their blood, filters and cleans it out, and then puts the blood back into the body clean. In peritoneal dialysis, we put a water solution into the person's belly and then take that water out and put new clean water in. This cleans the blood out.

Q: How often would a person have to get dialysis?

A: It depends on the kind of dialysis. A patient who goes onto hemodialysis usually has to go three times a week for about four hours at a time. A patient who chooses to do peritoneal dialysis has to get it everyday.

Q: Can a patient choose which type of dialysis they want or is it the doctor's choice?

A: The patient gets to choose which type of dialysis they'd prefer, but the doctor also gets to say which type of dialysis he/she thinks will be medically better for the patient.

Q: Will dialysis "fix" the kidneys or is it something that you have to keep getting for a long time?

A: Unfortunately the kidneys don't get better once they're damaged and dialysis is a life-long medical treatment unless the patient is able to get a kidney transplant. If a person gets a kidney transplant, they no longer need dialysis.

Q: What is a kidney transplant?

A: A kidney transplant is when a healthy kidney from somebody else is put inside the body of a person with kidney disease.

Q: Which treatment is better--dialysis or kidney transplants?

A: When a person has complete kidney failure, the best thing they can do is get a kidney transplant. If we can't give them a transplant because we can't get a kidney or if there's a very long wait for a kidney or the person can't get a transplant at all (it depends on your age, how healthy you are, and whether you can find a "match" for your kidney), then they go on dialysis.

Read more from Dr. Nickolas by clicking the links below:

• Kidney failure
• Nephrologists
• Kidneys regulate blood pressure
• Low cholesterol to keep your kidneys healthy
• Who's most likely to get kidney disease

To listen to our interview with Dr. Nickolas, click here for our podcast page.

Harlem Word is a series of interviews with Harlem health experts, written by HHPC and reviewed by our Health Advisory Board.