Thursday, July 10, 2008
Bloodless Wearable Kidney Does Dialysis on the Move
Filed under: Medicine
A new design developed by researchers at UCLA and the Los Angeles VA could make dialysis visits a thing of the past. Standard hemodialysis often requires renal failure patients to come into the hospital for length 4+ hour dialysis sessions. Peritoneal dialysis is able to be done at home and is bloodless, but it still requires the patient to commit a few hours everyday or at night.
The new design is meant to be worn around during daily activities, so that it mimics the function of real kidneys by filtering out a little bit of the body's toxins at a time. The device also filters the spent dialysate, which makes the device waterless and decreases protein loss. The device can filter about 96 liters per day.
For those that think this is all too good to be true the researchers have already signed a licensing agreement with a Singapore-based company, which means we might actually see this dream machine on the market.
Read the press release here...
Read the design article here (requires subscription)...
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