This animation may only be used in support of a single legal proceeding and for no other purpose. Read our License Agreement for details. To license this image for other purposes, click here.
MEDICAL ANIMATION TRANSCRIPT: Your doctor may recommend dialysis, a procedure that removes waste products from your blood, if your kidneys are not functioning properly. Healthy kidneys filter out waste, excess fluid, and electrolytes like potassium and sodium from the blood. These waste products exit the body through the urethra in the form of urine. If you have kidney disease, your kidneys gradually lose function, leading to an accumulation of harmful waste and excess fluid in your body, increased blood pressure, and bone or blood problems. Dialysis can also be done to treat acute kidney failure, which occurs when your kidneys stop working suddenly, or to remove drugs or poisons from your body. In one type of dialysis, called hemodialysis, your doctor will use a machine called a dialyzer to clean your blood outside your body. Some weeks or months before you begin hemodialysis, your doctor will prepare a vascular access site on your body. Your doctor will create either an arteriovenous graft or an arteriovenous fistula to access your bloodstream. To begin, he or she will numb the area with local anesthesia. To construct an arteriovenous graft, your surgeon will make a small incision in your forearm, and insert a soft plastic tube called a graft to connect an artery to a vein. To create an arteriovenous fistula, your surgeon will make a small incision in your skin, and connect an artery with a vein to make a larger vessel called a fistula. Once your vascular access site has healed, your doctor can start hemodialysis. To begin, your dialysis nurse will insert two needles into your AV fistula or graft. Once the circuit is set up, your blood will flow slowly out of your body and through the dialyzer. Inside the dialyzer, your blood will encounter filtering fibers and an absorbent cleaning solution called dialysate. The fibers will remove waste and excess fluids and electrolytes from your blood. Your cleaned blood will emerge from the dialyzer and continue through the tubing back into your body through the second needle at your access site. When your hemodialysis session is complete, the needles and tubing are removed, and you can go home. In another type of dialysis, your doctor will use the membranes lining your abdomen, called the peritoneum, to clean your blood without removing it from your body. Before you begin peritoneal dialysis, you will have an operation to implant a soft tube called a catheter. Your surgeon will insert the catheter near your belly button, creating a port through which the dialysate will enter and leave your abdomen. Each peritoneal dialysis session is called an exchange. First, you will use your catheter to fill your abdomen with dialysate for a period of time determined by your doctor. Through the peritoneal membrane, waste products and extra fluid are continuously drawn out of your blood into the dialysate. Along with the waste materials it absorbed, the dialysate will drain out of your abdomen into a disposable collection bag during your exchange.
"It is with great enthusiasm that I recommend Medical Legal Art. We have
used their services for three years and always found their professionalism,
quality of work, and timely attention to detail to exceed our expectations.
We recently settled two complicated catastrophic injury cases. One medical
malpractice case involving a spinal abscess settled for 3.75 million and the
other involving injuries related to a motor vehicle accident settled for 6.9
million. We consider the artwork provided by MLA to have been invaluable in
helping us to successfully conclude these cases.
I highly recommend MLA to anyone seeking high quality, detailed medical
legal artwork."
E. Marcus Davis, Esq.
Davis Zipperman, Krischenbaum & Lotito
Atlanta, GA www.emarcusdavis.com
"The Doe Report is a visual feast of medical information for personal injury
lawyers."
Aaron R. Larson, Esq. President ExpertLaw.com
"For modern audiences, it is absolutely essential to use medical
demonstrative evidence to convey the severity and extent of physical
injuries to a jury. Your company's high quality illustrations of our
client's discectomy surgery, combined with strong expert testimony, allowed
the jury to fully appreciate the significance of our client's injuries.
We are very pleased with a verdict exceeding $297,000.00, far in excess of
the $20,000.00 initially offered by the defendant. The medical demonstrative
evidence provided by Medical Legal Art was an asset we could not have
afforded to have been without."
Todd J. Kenyon
Attorney at Law
Minneapolis, MN
"Medical Legal Art wins our firm's highest accolades for professionalism and
exhibit quality. In fact, many of the doctors I work with request color
copies of your outstanding artwork to show to patients during the informed
consent process."
Jeanne Dolan, BSRN, AlNC Legal Nurse Consultant Golden Valley, MN
Medical Legal Art creates medical demonstrative evidence (medical
illustrations, drawings, pictures, graphics, charts, medical animations,
anatomical models, and interactive presentations) for use during legal
proceedings, including research, demand letters, client conferences,
depositions, arbitrations, mediations, settlement conferences, mock jury
trials and for use in the courtroom. We do not provide legal or medical
advice. If you have legal questions, you should find a lawyer with whom you
can discuss your case issues. If you have medical questions, you should seek the advice of a healthcare provider.