A MINIATURE ARTIFICIAL KIDNEY WHICH IS WORN ON THE WRIST LIKE A BRACELET FOR AS LONG AS A WEEK IS BEING DESIGNED AND TESTED.

A MINIATURE ARTIFICIAL KIDNEY WHICH IS WORN ON THE WRIST LIKE A BRACELET FOR AS LONG AS A WEEK IS BEING DESIGNED AND TESTED. ONLY SMALL SNAP-ON CARTRIDGES HAVE TO BE CHANGED EVERY FEW HOURS. IN PHASE I, THE IDEA THAT A SMALL DEVICE USED CONSTANTLY IS AS EFFICIENT AS A LARGE MACHINE USED THREE TIMES A WEEK IS BEING PROVED IN THE LABORATORY. ALSO,MANY SMALL SORBENT CARTRIDGES ARE BEING USED IN THE EXPERIMENTS, INSTEAD OF A FEW LARGE ONES. WHEN THE SORBENT WEARABLE ARTIFICIAL KIDNEY (SWAK) HAS BEEN PERFECTED, FULLY TESTED IN ANIMALS AND VOLUNTEER PATIENTS, AND MANUFACTURED DURING PHASES II AND III, THEN ARTIFICIAL KIDNEY PATIENTS WILL FEEL BETTER BECAUSE THEIR BLOOD IS CLEANED ALL THE TIME INSTEAD OF ONLY ONCE IN A WHILE. PATIENTS WILL BE ABLE TO HOLD DOWN FULL TIME JOBS BECAUSE THEY WON'T HAVE TO SPEND THREE DAYS A WEEK IN A HOSPITAL OR CLINIC, OR BE TIED DOWN TO A BIG MACHINE AT HOME. THE COST OF EVERYTHING THAT GOES INTO CARING FOR PATIENTS WITH PERMANENTLY FAILING CHRONIC KIDNEYS WILL BE MUCH LESS THEN IT IS TODAY.