The purpose of dialysis is to remove the poison from your blood stream that a dysfunctional liver can no longer do. With no dialysis, the poisons build up in the system and I suppose one can die from that. I can't imagine anyone refusing dialysis if it is indicated. :(

You die.

If one's kidneys have failed, the only treatment is "renal replacement therapy", which is a fancy way of saying that someone needs either dialysis or a transplant. Without RRT, waste products build up in the blood and kill the patient. It doesn't always happen right away, though. Art Buchwald, the writer, lasted almost a year even though his doctors initially gave him several days to weeks.

1) It depends on the indication. In the case of an acute renal failure, you could risk end stage renal failure requiring lifelong dialysis or a kidney transplant. Without this, you would eventually die. 2) "In medicine, dialysis (from Greek "dialusis", meaning dissolution, "dia", meaning through, and "lusis", meaning loosening) is primarily used to provide an artificial replacement for lost kidney function (renal replacement therapy) due to renal failure. Dialysis may be used for very sick patients who have suddenly but temporarily, lost their kidney function (acute renal failure) or for quite stable patients who have permanently lost their kidney function (stage 5 chronic kidney disease). When healthy, the kidneys maintain the body's internal equilibrium of water and minerals (sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, sulfate) and the kidneys remove from the blood the daily metabolic load of fixed hydrogen ions. The kidneys also function as a part of the endocrine system producing erythropoietin and 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol (calcitriol). Dialysis is an imperfect treatment to replace kidney function because it does not correct the endocrine functions of the kidney. Dialysis treatments replace some of these functions through the diffusion (waste removal) and convection (fluid removal)." "Starting indications The decision to initiate dialysis or hemofiltration in patients with renal failure can depend on several factors, which can be divided into acute or chronic indications. - Acute indications for dialysis/hemofiltration: 1. Hyperkalemia 2. Metabolic acidosis 3. Fluid overload (which usually manifests as pulmonary edema) 4. Uremic Serositis complications, such as uremic pericarditis and uremic encephalopathy 5. And in patients without renal failure, acute poisoning with a dialysable drug, such as lithium, or aspirin - Chronic indications for dialysis: 1. Symptomatic renal failure 2. Low glomerular filtration rate (GFR) (RRT often recommended to commence at a GFR of less than 10-15 mls/min/1.73m2) 3. Difficulty in medically controlling serum phosphorus or anaemia when the GFR is very low" Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialysis 3) "Acute renal failure (ARF), also known as acute kidney failure or acute kidney injury, is a rapid loss of renal function due to damage to the kidneys, resulting in retention of nitrogenous (urea and creatinine) and non-nitrogenous waste products that are normally excreted by the kidney. Depending on the severity and duration of the renal dysfunction, this accumulation is accompanied by metabolic disturbances, such as metabolic acidosis (acidification of the blood) and hyperkalaemia (elevated potassium levels), changes in body fluid balance, and effects on many other organ systems. It can be characterised by oliguria or anuria (decrease or cessation of urine production), although nonoliguric ARF may occur. It is a serious disease and treated as a medical emergency." Source and further information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acute_renal_failure