Behind the Invention: Wearable Artificial Kidney

If you've ever known someone who has had to be on dialysis, you know that the quality of life for dialysis patients is not great. First of all, there is a pill burden. "My patients need to eat 20 to 30 pills a day," Victor Gura, MD, an internist, nephrologist, and inventor of the Wearable Artificial Kidney (WAK) told MD&M West attendees on Tuesday. "So one was making a joke. He said 'I could put them in a bowl with some dressing and have a salad'. The bottom line is it's a burden and it's also expensive." In addition to the pill burden, dialysis patients are restricted in the amount of water and other fluids they can drink because if their kidneys are not working they retain water. They also cannot eat salty foods for the same reason. Patients frequently end up in the hospital, they're often chronically thirsty, they can't eat what they want, and don't sleep well. Many dialysis patients have trouble holding a job because they have to go to dialysis three days a week for four hours at a time so they end up on disability. All of these issues and more take a toll on their mental health, which is why many dialysis patients also suffer from depression. So Gura and his team at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles set out to take a 300-pound dialysis machine and make it small enough to be worn on a belt. The WAK is a portable dialysis device designed to enable patients to experience the benefits of dai...
Source: MDDI - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: R & D Design Source Type: news