Doctors design mini-dialysis machine for babies

Doctors save life of a baby with mini dialysis machine

05/24/2014

Even babies sometimes have dangerous kidney problems and must therefore be treated. So far, however, there were no dialysis machines that are optimally adapted to toddlers. But Italian doctors have now developed such a machine, with which a newborn girl life could be saved.

Babies can have dangerous kidney problems
Even toddlers and babies can have dangerous kidney problems that may require dialysis to treat them. Around one to two percent of all infants treated in the hospital suffer from it. In principle, doctors use babies whose kidneys are not working properly with the same technique as with affected adults, namely dialysis, also called blood-washing. But adapting a standard dialysis machine to the baby can be risky because "the machines can not always be adjusted accurately". In Italy, doctors have developed a miniature version of such a device, which saved a newborn girl last year.

Mini dialysis machine designed for babies
The physicians now reported online in the journal „The Lancet“ from the development of the dialysis machine and its first patient. The research has been financially supported by an Italian non-profit association. The cost of the apparatus are according to the news agency AP at 35,000 euros, although it was mentioned that Ronco earned nothing in the sales. The device removes toxins from the blood when the kidneys are unable to do so. The mini-dialysis machine is intended for babies weighing less than ten kilograms. According to the researchers, it can work at significantly lower flow rates, allowing physicians to use much smaller catheters. This is important so as not to damage the blood vessels of newborns. The machine was developed by the kidney specialist Claudio Ronco and his colleagues at the San Bortolo Hospital in Vicenza. They presented the device under the acronym Carpediem (Cardio-Renal Pediatric Dialysis Emergency Machine).

Burial of the newborn was already reserved
Only a few weeks after the device was licensed by European authorities last summer, Ronco and his team were already receiving their first patient. It was a three-day-old girl who weighed 2.9 kilograms at baseline and suffered from multiple organ failure due to complications at birth. Ronco reported: „Her parents had already reserved the funeral.“ But instead, the newborns received regular dialysis for just under a month. The other day, the parents now paid a visit to the doctor with their girl. Ronco explained: „The little one screamed like crazy because she was hungry, but she's doing great.“ Although the child has mild kidney problems and needs vitamin D supplements, otherwise it will grow normally.

Ten more babies treated across Europe
Meanwhile, doctors across Europe have treated ten more babies with the dialysis machine. Kidney doctor Heather Lambert, who specializes in children, said that "although only a small number of babies need dialysis treatment, it could be life-saving.“ Lambert is already working on a similar dialysis machine with her colleagues at Newcastle's Great North Children's Hospital. Other researchers have experimented with prototypes. The Pediatrics Lecturer at Montreal Children's Hospital in Canada, Bethany Foster, said she could not imagine the miniature baby being treated „would have survived with the current technology.“ The doctor was co-author of an accompanying commentary in the journal. At the same time, she warned doctors to be careful when treating very small babies and explained: „We have to be careful that we do not just do things because we can.“ (Ad)