In the United States will soon begin testing a mobile artificial kidney + video

The concept of external artificial kidney WAK (Wearable Artifical Kidney) came back in 2009 but only in 2014 researchers got the green light for testing its device in humans.

The device resembles a tool belt and will be tested on patients at the end of this year. WAK is the fruit of more than ten years of research, and its creators are really proud of their achievements in this field. A team of researchers headed by Victor Gura, one of the employees of the Medical University of the city of Geffen.





According to the developers, thanks to this machine patients will no longer have to spend hours in a stationary state, sitting in a special chair for dialysis, as WAK will be able to clear their blood on the go.





WAK as conventional dialysis machine filters waste from the blood after his own kidneys have already failed and are in disrepair. But we should not forget that the dialysis machine is a device the size of a medium wardrobe, while the WAK can be worn on the belt and not to slow down your life. Because this belt weighs just 4.5 kilograms.





Usually patients with failing kidneys need three sessions of dialysis duration of four hours each. Agree, saving 12 hours of life per week is quite a nice bonus for anyone.





At the moment, WAK represents a first working prototype, but in the future it could mutate and become even more compact and efficient. Already selected 32 subjects, on which the machine will be tested before the end of 2014.



Source: hi-news.ru