Patients on dialysis can now walk
with wearable artificial kidney
A wearable artificial kidney could be developed as a
viable, new dialysis technology that allows patients to be mobile and
untethered during treatment, results of a US Food and Drug
Administration-authorised clinical trial suggest. The technology may become an
alternative to conventional hemodialysis for people with end-stagekidney
disease. Present-day treatment generally requires three sessions a
week on a stationary machine that restricts patients’ ability to walk around
while it is attached and running. In contrast, a wearable device would allow
patients to be mobile and untethered. It could also provide additional
treatment benefits from longer sessions or more frequent days of dialysis. The trial of a
prototype for such a device was performed with seven patients at University of
Washington Medical Center in Seattle. Those leading the trial included the
inventor of the device, Wearable Artificial Kidney prototype, Victor Gura of
Cedar-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
The findings were reported in the journal JCI Insights.
The trial was conducted to determine the safety and efficacy of the device –
its ability to take over some functions of failed kidneys. The researchers also
wanted to ask the participants about their impressions of the experimental
treatment, and to compare those with standard dialysis treatment. The patients
were treated with the device for up to 24 hours. In the patients studied, the
device was shown to effectively clear the blood of waste products, like urea,
creatinine and and phosphorus, while also removing excess water and salt. These
are normally filtered out and removed by working kidneys.
While the usual diet for patients on standard dialysis is
highly limited, their blood fluid volume of those on the wearable device
remained balanced during the test, even without any diet restrictions.
Regulating the volume and composition of body fluids is another job of normal
kidneys. During the trial, the participants tolerated the treatment well and
did not have any serious, adverse effects. However, this trial of the device
was stopped after the seventh patient because of technical problems with the
device. These included the excessive formation of carbon dioxide gas bubbles in
the dialysis solution, and intermittent variations in solution and blood flow.
Nevertheless, the findings provide proof of concept that a wearable devise
along these lines could be developed as a viable, novel dialysis technology,
the researchers said.
Source: www.thehealthsite.com
04.06.2016
Wonder rather
than doubt is
the root of all knowledge
Abraham
Joshua Heschel
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