What is a Nephrologist – and What Do They Do?

What is a Nephrologist – and What Do They Do?

Nephrologists are a type of hospital doctor called a ‘physician’. A physician is a hospital-based doctor that does not do operations (like a surgeon).

There are many different types of physician.

But nephrologists are experts in the medical (i.e. non surgical) treatment of kidney diseases.

What type of patients do they have?

• Chronic kidney disease (CKD) – diagnosing and slowing the progression of CKD
• Acute kidney injury (AKI) – rapid onset kidney failure. These patients are usually unwell and in hospital. Some will require (usually temporary) dialysis
• Nephrotic syndrome – and other diseases of the immune system
• High blood pressure – that GPs cannot make normal
• Dialysis and kidney transplants. They don’t do the transplants. They are done by transplant surgeons but nephrologists are heavily involved with preparing people with advanced CKD for a transplant, and transplant care immediately after the operation, and in the long-term.

Alot of their work is the long-term monitoring – of patients with more severe CKD (Stages 4 and 5),  including those on dialysis or with a kidney transplant.

Most hospitals do not have a team of nephrologists partly because the diseases they deal with are rare. They tend to work in the larger teaching hospitals, but often do clinics in local hospitals where you can see them.

There is a lot of overlap between CKD and heart disease and diabetes.

Who do nephrologists work with?

So nephrologists work closely with other  hospital-based physicians including heart and diabetic specialists (called cardiologists and diabetologists).

They also work closely with different types of hospital-based surgeon. These include urologists (surgeons that do operations on the kidneys and urinary tract), and vascular (blood vessel) and kidney transplant surgeons.