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Toward the wearable artificial kidney
Author(s) -
RONCO Claudio,
DAVENPORT Andrew,
GURA Victor
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
hemodialysis international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.658
H-Index - 47
eISSN - 1542-4758
pISSN - 1492-7535
DOI - 10.1111/j.1542-4758.2008.00295.x
Subject(s) - artificial kidney , wearable computer , medicine , peritoneal dialysis , wearable technology , modality (human–computer interaction) , hemodialysis , extracorporeal , computer science , intensive care medicine , artificial intelligence , biomedical engineering , embedded system , surgery
The evolution of technology in hemodialysis has gone through several steps including the feasibility phase, the search for reliability, the implementation of automation to improve efficiency and the quest towards increased tolerance and treatment adequacy. Today, a new challenge is appearing on the scene and it concerns miniaturization, transportability, wearability and the possibility of developing implantable devices for renal replacement therapies. Although we are not there yet, a new series of papers have recently been published disclosing interesting and promising results on the application of wearable ultrafiltration systems (WUF) and wearable artificial kidneys (WAK). Some of these use extracorporeal blood cleansing as a method of blood purification while others use peritoneal dialysis as a treatment modality. This manuscript presents the initial results with these new devices and proposes an effort to make a quantum leap in technology making the wearable artificial kidney a reality rather than a dream.