An artificial kidney is a medical device that performs the function of a lost or damaged kidney, filtering the blood to remove waste products and returning purified blood to the body. The technology behind artificial organs is constantly improving and being refined. As of 2009, an implantable artificial kidney had not yet been developed, but researchers had created wearable artificial kidneys, an important step on the way to an implantable replacement for a malfunctioning kidney.
Artificial kidneys are used when the kidneys have difficulty working and when the kidneys have reached the state of acute failure. The best known and most frequently used form of the artificial kidney is the hemodialysis machine, medical equipment that can be attached to the patient to clean their blood. Patients with acute kidney failure may require daily hemodialysis, and treatment requires going to a clinic that offers the procedure, which can be time-consuming and expensive, as well as frustrating for people trying to lead relatively normal lives.
As an alternative to conventional hemodialysis, doctors have developed portable and portable artificial kidneys that can be used as temporary measures for up to three days. These devices use battery power to function, and can increase a patient's sense of freedom by allowing them to avoid conventional dialysis treatments.
Researchers have also worked on the development of an artificial kidney that could be installed as a replacement in a patient with kidney failure or severe kidney failure. The development of such a device depends on discovering how to replicate the complex natural filter within the kidneys in a form small enough to be implanted in the human body. Nanotechnology has the greatest potential in the eyes of researchers struggling to design an implantable artificial kidney.
Currently, patients can use an artificial kidney while waiting for a transplant or to temporarily relieve stress on the kidneys. Hemodialysis is sometimes used to scrub the blood in cases where a patient develops severe toxicity, or to help patients suffering from systemic organ failure and other medical problems that put great pressure on the kidneys.
Medical technology is a subject of great interest to many researchers, as it has wide-ranging potential applications. Artificial kidneys are just one of a variety of medical devices that would have been unthinkable to early medical pioneers, representing the enormous advances made in medicine in the 20th century.