A wearable dialysis machine that comes to your rescue

You will soon hear of a wearable dialysis machine that promises to change the way kidney patients undergo dialysis.

The man who led the research on this machine, Victor Gura, has received US FDA permission to take up human trials.

This is among many critical research projects that give hopes to millions of patients who require dialysis to make up for their faulty kidneys. Awareness levels in the country on kidney failure are not as high as that of diabetes or hypertension.

But doctors warn that people who are diagnosed with one of the conditions or both are candidates for kidney failures.

The good news is there are several advances in the field that help doctors provide better and efficient dialysis methods.

“There are some ongoing research projects that will help in improve the quality of life of patients. They are working on the usability of transplanting kidneys from animals. Research would also help increase ability of the body to accept transplanted kidneys,” K S Nayak, a city-based nephrologist, said.

Kidney specialists from across the world discussed the latest developments at the Haemodialysis University (convention) for two days which concluded on Sunday. The International Society for Haemodialysis is organising the third edition. The first and second editions were held in the US and China.

“You must ask your doctor three questions. What’s your blood sugar level, your BP and cholesterol levels. If you have these figures on the wrong side and find protein in urine, you must know that you are a future candidate for kidney failure,” a senior nephrologists attending the conference said.

Nayak said the absence of universal health coverage for patients suffering from kidney failure is the biggest challenge in India.

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