Hemodialysis Home������������ End Stage Renal Disease
(ESRD)��������������� Principles
Dialyzers������������ Modeling
Hemodialysis Therapy���������� Demonstration������������ History
Dialyzers
��������� The heart
of hemodialysis is the dialyzer.� A very
large and competive market, with several manufacturers, serves the needs of the
hemodialysis community.� A typical
specification flyer for hemdialyzers is shown in the picture immediately
following (this is not an endorsement for Fresenius products).
��������� The back side
of the flyer typically contains dialyzer specifications, as shown here.
��������� The most
common dialyzers are hollow fiber devices that contain thousands of hollow
fibers housed in a hard plastic, typically polycarbonate, shell.� Blood flows through the dialyzer on the
interior (lumen) of the fibers.�
Dialysate flows through the dialyzer on the exterior (shell-side) of the
fibers.
��������� Depending
upon the manufacturer, the fibers are made from such biocompatible
materials as cellulose acetate or polysulfone.�
The fibers have a microporous structure that permit the diffusion of
small molecular weight species from the blood to the dialysate.� The diffusion rate can be expressed in terms
of the dialyzer clearance of the molecule.� The specification sheet above shows the clearances of various
molecules for indicated dialyzers under different blood and dialysate flow rate
conditions.� The large variety of
dialyzers permits physicians to appropriately specify a hemodialysis treatment
to meet the needs of a patient.
��������� The web
addresses for three of the larger vendors in the United States are:
������������������ www.fmc-ag.com����� (Fresenius Medical Care)
������������������ www.baxter.com������ (Baxter Healthcare Corporation)
������������������ www.gambro.com��� (Gambro AB)
Hemodialysis Home������������ End Stage Renal Disease
(ESRD)��������������� Principles
Dialyzers������������ Modeling
Hemodialysis Therapy���������� Demonstration������������ History
Copyright �
2001, John F Patzer II
All Rights
Reserved