Sunday, August 23, 2009

Wearable Artificial Kidney good bye to dialysis !

I have seen people who had kidney failure and how its difficult to get dailysis & to mentain the sterile conditions to avoid infections. Now thanx to a group of researchers from David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA,  who have come up with a novel idea of developing wearable artificial kidney!. 
As per the claim by the researchers, the device—essentially a miniaturized dialysis machine, worn as a belt—weighs about 10 pounds and is powered by two nine-volt batteries. Patients don't need to be hooked up to a full-size dialysis machine, they are free to walk, work, or sleep while undergoing continuous, gentle dialysis that more closely approximates normal kidney function. Despite enduring long hours on dialysis every week—with major limitations in activities, diet, and other areas of life—dialysis patients face high rates of hospitalization and death and more over its a costly affair too. 
The Wearable Artificial Kidney is successful in preliminary tests, including two studies in dialysis patients. The new study provides important information on the technical details that made these promising results possible. Though further studies like 'long-term effect' has to be established its a great achievement  and hope the researchers will succeed in their endeavor....
Congrats,  Victor Gura et.al., 

No comments: