Why can a person still live after a kidney is cut off?

Kidney, commonly known as kidney, is like a "filter" for human excretion and detoxification. People can't live without kidneys. However, if a functioning kidney can be preserved, people can still urinate and survive. Why is this?

This is because people have a left kidney and a right kidney. The main function of the kidney is to preserve normal water and necessary electrolytes in the body; Discharge excess water and electrolytes, as well as metabolic wastes and toxic substances from the body. After 5/6 ~ 7/8 nephrectomy in rats, the residual glomerular volume increased within 3 months, and the glomerular cells proliferated after 6 months.

After unilateral nephrectomy in animals, the filtration rate of a single glomerulus of a kidney left in the body increases. This shows that the function of each nephron in the other kidney will be compensated when one kidney is removed. When nephron is reduced by half (for example, one side of kidney is removed), the excretion and regulation function of kidney can still be maintained well.

Therefore, once a kidney is cut off due to illness or donation, as long as the left renal function is normal, it can still urinate and survive.

The kidney is an important excretory organ of the human body, which has four functions: 1, filtering to form urine and discharge metabolic wastes, and the substances ingested by the human body are filtered by the kidney to retain beneficial substances such as glucose, amino acids, calcium and phosphorus, and discharge urea, creatinine and some toxic substances; 2. Secreting renin-angiotensin helps blood vessels to contract, and secreting prostaglandin and bradykinin helps blood vessels to dilate and maintain blood pressure balance; 3. Secrete erythropoietin to maintain and promote normal red blood cell metabolism; 4. Secreting 1, 25- dihydroxy vitamin D3 regulates calcium metabolism.