Abstract :
This short communication has been written in order to call the attention of the bio-medical engineering community to ultrafiltration as a promising but littleexplored method for artificially removing wastes from the blood. Artificial kidnevs in use today are dialyzers. They depend largely upon diffusion for the elimination of waste substances. In contrast, in the human kidney, wastes are filtered from the blood with the aid of a hydrostatic pressure differential. Proper use of ultrafiltration in the artificial kidney should make it possible to reduce treatment time on the machine, the amount of filter material needed, the amount of priming blood, and, consequently, the cost of the treatment.
