Disease of the Excretory System

The excretory system is the system in the body that is designed to find and eliminate waste. When this system becomes diseased, the body's ability to remove waste can be compromised. If these toxins build up in the body, they can lead to death. The main organs involved in the excretory system are the kidneys. The lungs and skin are also considered part of the excretory system since the lungs expel carbon dioxide from the blood and the skin gets rid of dead skin cells and other waste material is expelled through sweat.

Kidneys

• The kidneys filter waste from the blood and then send the waste to the bladder in the form of urine. The bladder stores the urine until it is expelled through the urethra. Common diseases in the kidneys are nephritis and kidney stones. Nephritis is an inflammation of the kidney. Kidney stones are hard and dense mineral deposits in the kidneys. They can block tubes in the kidney, which causes extreme pain, or even cause bleeding.

Extracorporeal Shockwave Lithotripsy

• Extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy is a method to break up kidney stones that are too large to be passed normally through the urine. A machine is placed against the patient's skin over the kidney. The machine uses ultrasonic sound waves to break up the kidney stones so they are small enough to be passed through the urine. If this doesn't work, or if the kidney stones are too large to be broken up in this manner, then surgery would have to be done to remove them.

Dialysis

• If the kidneys become too diseased to function properly, then dialysis is used to supplement or replace the function of the kidneys. The patient's blood is pumped into a machine that filters out the waste and then returns the blood to the patient. This procedure keeps the patient alive, but it is painful and doesn't improve the patient's quality of life, which is why a kidney transplant is preferred when that option is available.

Kidney Transplant

• A kidney transplant is when a healthy kidney is surgically implanted into a patient with diseased kidneys. People can live with only one kidney, so they can donate a kidney to someone with diseased kidneys. In a transplant, the healthy kidney is placed into the abdomen and connected to the blood vessels and bladder, but the diseased kidneys are not removed. The person donating the kidney must be a close genetic match to the recipient to reduce the risk of the body rejecting the new kidney. The recipient also will be given anti-rejection drugs.

Bladder

• Disease of the bladder can also cause problems with the excretory system. The most common disease is cystitis, which is an inflammation of the bladder. This is normally caused by a bacterial infection. Cystitis is more common in women than men because a woman's urethra is shorter and closer to the anus, which makes it easier for bacteria to get to the bladder.

Urethritis

• Urethritis is an inflammation of the urethra. This also is usually caused by bacterial infection, such as gonorrhea. Males are more susceptible to urethritis than females because of their differences in anatomy.