Latest Dialysis Machines

Researchers at the University of Michigan are working on new filter systems by precisely controlling the size and shape of pores in the membranes across which the blood is filtered. This would produce a smaller and more efficient device.

End-stage renal disease is when there is total or near-total loss of kidney function and patients need dialysis or transplantation to stay alive. Dialysis currently only provides about 10 or 15 per cent of filtration rate so you have to use pharmaceuticals to provide all of the other things the kidney normally does. It is much preferable to have a transplant, but only one a small percentage will actually get one so there is a great push to develop better kidney replacement devices also known as dialysis machines. 

Doctors have been attempting to make smaller and more efficient filters, with the ultimate goal of getting them small enough to be wearable or implantable. While dialysis machines are getting smaller, and some can fit into a suitcase, the prospects of a "wearable" kidney remain some years away.

Source: University of Michigan