It is a pretty crude process using a bulky machine to do only a tiny fraction of what our kidneys can do. It over/under filters different parts of your blood an

It is a pretty crude process using a bulky machine to do only a tiny fraction of what our kidneys can do. It over/under filters different parts of your blood and can create side effects. It doesn't do most of the regulatory functions of your kidneys. You are stuck on it for many hours every (other) day. There are risks of infection. You cannot stay on one mode of treatment your whole life. If you get a transplant you are stuck on anti-rejection medicines your whole life and the kidneys may last for 10-15 years in the best cases. Then it is back to dialysis or another transplant. I happen to be a dialysis patient (just recently) due to a uncommon autoimmune disease harming my kidneys. Maybe 1 in 1500 chance of you having it but that is uncommon enough that doctors don't have a fully understanding of what exactly happens. There is no blood test or meaningful treatment. Through all my experience in the medical system we are truly living in the dark ages. Other than a few common classes of illnesses, they have no clue how to treat you. Kidney disease doesn't seem to have much advancement in treatment because there is already some crude way to keep people alive. There are some efforts going on with artificial kidneys that fit in your body. One in particular https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2015/11/165666/artificial-kidney-research-advances-through-ucsf-collaboration https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2015/11/165666/artificial-kidney-r.... But I see it struggle to get funding over the years. I see every day shitty tech startups funded for 10x the amount in that project and produce nothing meaningful.