Wearable artificial kidney may change how we perform dialysis forever.

[GentryDixon]

Wearable artificial kidneys may soon replace traditional dialysis machines, the results of a new clinical study show. While there are still some teething issues to fix before wide scale use, patients praised the system’s portability and ease of use.

Dialysis is required by patients whose kidneys can no longer effectively clean waste products out of the bloodstream. Current treatments are done in three treatment sessions a week. These are performed in hospitals as the process involves big, stationary machines which filter the patient’s blood. As you can probably imagine this is quite a hassle and overall unpleasant experience for the patients, and having access to a wearable device that would allow treatment to be performed at home or while mobile would be a huge quality of life improvement for them.

The FDA authorized trials of a prototype device that does all this, dubbed the “Wearable Artificial Kidney”. The trials involved seven patients from the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle during late 2015. The experiments aimed to determine how efficient the new device is at the task, but also whether or not it could be safely used for prolonged periods of time. More ......



http://www.zmescience.com/medicine/artificial-kidney-56657/

I am a kidney transplant patient. I was on peritoneal dialysis for about 5 months before my transplant. I was on home dialysis every day, about 10 hours per night, versus the hemodialysis which this appears to be. What a wonderful breakthrough this would be for kidney patients.

[msongs]

1. my dad had dialysis. made him really weak. the dialysis industry will NOT like this development

as it is currently outrageously expensive

[braddy]

2. Fantastic.

[Hoyt]

3. That would really improve quality of life. Spent 3 years taking my

father-in-law to dialysis 3 times a week. He'd leave so weak, I'd sometimes have to almost drag him out. Wouldn't wish that on anyone.

[GentryDixon]

4. My little sister was on hemodialysis.

You could look at the patients and know who would not be there the next time you went. I told my older sister on Friday that Jeannie would be the next to go. She died on Sunday. What a horrible ordeal that poor girl went through.
RIP sissie.

[Hoyt]

5. So sorry. The people at the dialysis center were so sick. Many had diabetes and similar

diseases. Lots of people with amputated legs. One women would go outside and smoke through a permanent tracheostomy. But, they were some of the finest people I've ever been around. I saw a legless women try to help my FIL when he passed out. It was terrible, but I won't forget the the people I met. We cared for him in Alabama, but one time he came to our house in Georgia. The only facility we could find was where all the prisoners needing dialysis went. My father-in-law weakly said, "whatever you do, don't tell them I was a policeman for 25 years." They were nice too really.

Sorry about your sister. They finally took my FIL off dialysis because the doctor said he wasn't going to get any better and he was pretty much unable to function. No quality of life. He still lived for over a month before dying peacefully.

[femmocrat]

6. Thanks for posting this.

I have been following the development of these devices for awhile. Last I heard (maybe a year ago), it would be 6 years for a human-use approved prototype. There are actually several devices in different stages of development. Fortunately, they now seem to be on track for quicker results! These still look cumbersome, but are a million times better than the stationary dialysis machines. TG for the dedicated researchers working to improve the lives of kidney patients.

[HuckleB]

7. Recommended!

[Skarbrowe]

8. I've been on dialysis for about a year now.

When they say you leave that place "tired",.. wow, what an understatement. Ha! Plus it ate up most of my brain cells. It's really difficult trying to explain to someone how draining dialysis can be. I thought I would be fine because I'm not afraid of needles and I had already become too ill to do much of anything but read and watch TV anyway. At one time I posted long political or TV comments (on other sites..have never been very prolific on the DU.) and I loved it. Hard to string sentences together now. Forget grammar. I even got confused reading that article. I think I saw it on Google today or yesterday.

I know they will eventually come up with something to at least get a big chunk of the people on hemodialysis off of that three day a week tether.

Well, today was a "recupe" day for me. Back on the machine tomorrow. I usually spend the four hours watching TV on my cell phone.


The machine is life and life is good.

[Scuba]

9. My daughter spent 10 years on dialysis, five on the transplant waiting list.

The wearable - and eventually implantable - artificial kidney will be a major breakthrough and enormous help to millions of patients.


Thanks for the post GentryDixon!