Portable Kidney Machine with Blood Leakage Detector

Abstract

Haemodialysis (HD) was first used by Wilhem Kolff to treat patients with acute kidney disease during the Second World War. However it was only in the 1960s following advances in vascular access, dialysers and dialysis machine design that HD started to become available as a treatment for patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD). The many limitations on patient life style at that time, particularly the strict dietary and fluid restraint required, were readily appreciated by the early pioneers of HD therapies, who started a search to develop portable and wearable HD devices. However the technology attainable at that time restricted development and, consequently, enthusiasm for developing a wearable device wanted.