Home > Encyclopedia of Medicine > Nephrotoxic Injury

Definition

Nephrotoxic injury is damage to one or both of the kidneys that results from exposure to a toxic material, usually through ingestion.

Description

The kidneys are the primary organs of the urinary system, which purifies the blood by removing wastes from it and excreting them from the body in urine. Every day, the kidneys filter about 45 gal (180 l) of blood, about four times as much as the amount that passes through any other organ. Because of this high volume, the kidneys are more often exposed to toxic substances in the blood and are very vulnerable to injury from those sources.

Each kidney contains over one million structures called nephrons. Each nephron consists of two parts: the renal corpuscle and the renal tubule. The renal corpuscle is where the blood is filtered. It is made up of a network of capillaries (the glomerulus) and the structure that surrounds these capillaries (Bowman's...