How is this caused?
Although there are many different reasons for end stage renal disease to develop they always began with kidney disease. Kidney failure is when your kidneys stop working well enough for you to live without dialysis or a kidney transplant. Some examples of the top reasons someone can develop kidney failure in the United States are diabetes (also called Type 2, or adult onset diabetes), high blood pressure and glomerulonephritis. This is a disease that damages the kidneys' filtering units, called the glomeruli. In many cases, the cause of this disease is not known, but some cases may be inherited and others may be triggered by an infection. Some of the other diseases that may affect the kidneys include infections, kidney stones and inherited diseases such as polycystic kidney disease. The kidneys can also be damaged by overuse of some over-the-counter pain killers and by taking illegal drugs such as heroin. Some of these diseases can be cured. In other cases, treatments can help to slow the disease and prolong life. Lastly kidney failure can happen very suddenly (called acute renal failure) or slowly over time. In most cases, kidney failure is permanent. This is called end-stage renal disease or ESRD.