Global Dialysis Perspective: Israel

Preliminary efforts for urgent dialysis as a life-saving measure for AKI were reported in three patients by Dr. Kurt Steinitz in Haifa, Israel as early as in 1948. He built a crude dialysis machine based on the publications of Kolff and Alwell. Three patients were treated and only one survived (1). Established dialysis programs for AKI and ESKD with trained staff began in 1958 and 1965, respectively, at the Hadassah UniversityHospital in Jerusalem under the direction of Prof. Ulman who had trained in the US. After the successful Hadassah experience, hemodialysis (HD) treatment soon spread to other main hospitals in the country. The first kidney transplantation in Israel was performed in Beilinson (today Rabin) medical center in 1964, by Prof. Morris Levy from a mother to her son, only 10 years after the first successful kidney transplantation in the world between twin brothers in Boston.