Nephrology

Nephrologist
Occupation
Names
  • Physician
Occupation type
Specialty
Activity sectors
Medicine
Description
Education required
Fields of
employment
Hospitals, Clinics

Nephrology (from Ancient Greek nephros 'kidney' and -logy 'the study of') is a specialty for both adult internal medicine and pediatric medicine that concerns the study of the kidneys, specifically normal kidney function (renal physiology) and kidney disease (renal pathophysiology), the preservation of kidney health, and the treatment of kidney disease, from diet and medication to renal replacement therapy (dialysis and kidney transplantation). The word "renal" is an adjective meaning "relating to the kidneys", and its roots are French or late Latin. Whereas according to some opinions, "renal" and "nephro" should be replaced with "kidney" in scientific writings such as "kidney medicine" (instead of nephrology) or "kidney replacement therapy", other experts have advocated preserving the use of renal and nephro as appropriate including in "nephrology" and "renal replacement therapy", respectively.[1]

Nephrology also studies systemic conditions that affect the kidneys, such as diabetes and autoimmune disease; and systemic diseases that occur as a result of kidney disease, such as renal osteodystrophy and hypertension. A physician who has undertaken additional training and become certified in nephrology is called a nephrologist.

The term "nephrology" was first used in about 1960, according to the French "néphrologie" proposed by Pr. Jean Hamburger in 1953, from the Greek νεφρός / nephrós (kidney). Before then, the specialty was usually referred to as "kidney medicine".[2]

  1. ^ Kalantar-Zadeh, Kamyar; McCullough, Peter A.; Agarwal, Sanjay Kumar; Beddhu, Srinivasan; Boaz, Mona; Bruchfeld, Annette; Chauveau, Philippe; Chen, Jing; De Sequera, Patricia; Gedney, Nieltje; Golper, Thomas A.; Gupta, Malini; Harris, Tess; Hartwell, Lori; Liakopoulos, Vassilios; Kopple, Joel D.; Kovesdy, Csaba P.; MacDougall, Iain C.; Mann, Johannes F. E.; Molony, Donald; Norris, Keith C.; Perlmutter, Jeffrey; Rhee, Connie M.; Riella, Leonardo V.; Weisbord, Steven D.; Zoccali, Carmine; Goldsmith, David (Mar 13, 2021). "Nomenclature in nephrology: preserving 'renal' and 'nephro' in the glossary of kidney health and disease". J. Nephrol. 34 (3): 639–648. doi:10.1007/s40620-021-01011-3. PMC 8192439. PMID 33713333.
  2. ^ Professor Priscilla Kincaid-Smith, nephrologist Archived 2016-10-03 at the Wayback Machine, Australian Academy of Science, Interview by Dr Max Blythe in 1998.