Dialysis is faster and safer with the new method

Thousands of dialysis patients can be given faster, safer treatments thanks to new implants being tested at St George's Hospital in Lon Don and Manchester University Hospital.

Currently, about 55,000 patients in the United Kingdom undergo end-stage renal disease, depending on the dialysis machine to filter waste and water from the blood. Dialysis requires that it be done by specialists by connecting a vein to a nearby large artery to provide adequate blood flow in the vein, enabling the dialysis machine to function. Gradually, scar tissue forms in the joint, forcing doctors to perform surgery to place a catheter into the vena cava. This surgery is often quite dangerous.

But a new silicon tube, called Optiflow , could give a new solution.

The new device brings life to thousands of people with kidney failure

First, blood flow is blocked in a vein and the artery is selected to insert the Optiflow tube. Doctors cut the vein and put the small head of Optiflow tube inside it. The tip of the tube has tiny outside clamps to make sure the tube is fixed tightly. The doctors then created a small hole in the nearby artery and inserted the large head of Optifolw. This end of the tube has two small edges to prevent the tube from drifting out of position. Finally, blood flow is passed to the vein, which can be connected directly to the dialysis machine. Optiflow is permanently placed or until the patient has a kidney transplant.

Eric Chemla, a doctor of kidney and vascular surgery consultation at St George Hospital, is also the first surgeon in Europe to install this tube, saying more and more patients have to be treated with the method. Dialysis measures in recent years due to a number of lifestyle-related diseases such as diabetes. Optiflow promises to bring life to many people and needs to be deployed across the UK in 2013.

Reference: Daily Mail