What is the medical procedure known as dialysis

I work at a nursing home and I know when someone is on dialysis there is not a long time left before the end of there life. The elderly can not have a kidney transplant. Most would not survive one.

Dialysis is used when your kidneys have failed and no longer work. When a persons kidneys fail they need dialysis to keep them alive. Dialysis gets rid of the waste that the kidneys would normally flush out on there own.

i can answer this! my grandpa has to do this

first they have to decide what kind you need my grandpa has hemodialysis which is where they cleanse the blood out itself.
then they will put a port type thing most commonly in upper arm if they decide on hemodialysis.then they will set you in chair and hook the port up to a thing of 'pipes' then it normally takes about 4 hrs a day each time...theres certain things you will need to either eliminate or limit..
you will need to limit drinks for which will make kidneys have to work even harder and you might swell...same with salt...then you need to either eliminate or have very little posphuris(sorry if misspelled!) idk what it does just know its not good when your in that condition...
please contact doctor for any more concerns!

hope this helps:)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialysis