Original Article
Kidney International (1998) 54, 268–274; doi:10.1046/j.1523-1755.1998.00959.x
The acu-men™: A new device for continuous renal replacement therapy in acute renal failure
TECHNICAL NOTE
Markus Manns, Hans D Polaschegg, Christian Schlaeper, Bernd Steinbach and Hans G Evering
Fresenius Medical Care, Bad Homburg, Germany
Correspondence: Markus Manns M.D., Ph.D., Fresenius Medical Care, 61343 Bad Homburg, Germany
Received 13 October 1997; Revised 3 February 1998; Accepted 3 February 1998.
Abstract
The acu-men;™: A new device for continuous renal replacement therapy in acute renal failure.
Background
We sought to design a simple machine to safely provide continuous veno-venous hemofiltration to acute renal failure patients.
Results
The acu-men™ device uses a pneumatic blood pump with tidal blood flow as the driving force. A volumetric balancing system balances the filtrate with the replacement fluid, and the blood—air interface is eliminated by replacing the conventional venous drip chamber with two air-separating membranes. The extracorporeal circuit is integrated in a disposable cartridge, which is inserted into the machine at the beginning of treatment. The priming and rinsing is done automatically.
Conclusion
While preliminary data from an ongoing clinical trial on the efficacy of this device are encouraging, further longer-term studies are necessary to evaluate its potential to decrease morbidity and mortality in acute renal failure patients.
Keywords:
CRRT, CVVHD, extracorporeal circuit, veno-venous hemofiltration, tidal flow hemodialysis
