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Hepatitis B – epidemics to vaccination
Tragedy to biotech, 1965-76 Hepatitis B virion model. medicalgraphics.de The first cases of dialysis-associated hepatitis were reported in 1965, killing a nurse, porter, and patient, and infecting several others in Manchester. The ‘Australia antigen’ was identified in Philadelphia in the same year, and the following year associated with hepatitis. A key observation was the new…
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Home haemodialysis – how far can it go?
The home dialysis expansion of the 1960s and 70s Olga Heppel – one of the UK’s first home haemodialysis patients at home in 1964. Watch the movie at britishpathe.com. It came as a surprise to many that haemodialysis could be more than a short-term treatment. But pressures on capacity were immediate, varying methods being used…
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The perils of Salt
Dialysis finally forced recognition of its importance in kidney disease The Amazonian Yanomami Indians famously manage on only 50mg (1 mmol) of sodium chloride per day, while in more developed societies we struggle to keep our average intake below 100 times that level. Humans probably mostly evolved on diets more like that of the Yanomami.…
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Aluminium poisoning
Draws attention to the importance of water quality in the 1970s Your dialysis team on the verge of the 1970s (Kings College Hospital 1969) Just as the outbreak of dialysis-associated hepatitis was dying down, a report (Alfrey et al) from Denver in 1972 described the first of many worldwide clusters of dialysis patients with an…
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Obstetric renal failure
Alarming emergency and important public health marker Methodist Hospital, Dallas, 1966 (credit at foot of post) In the early days of dialysis obstetric renal failure was a major part of the work of a renal unit. Acute renal failure was estimated to occur in 1 in 1400 to 1 in 5000 pregnancies in the UK…
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Transplantation takes off in the mid 1960s
Years of experimentation finally pay off Roy Calne (white coat) with dogs Tweedledee, Titus and Lollipop, recipient of the first successful long-term organ transplant, using azathioprine (Copyright of and withpermission from Sir Roy Calne – link to source) Transplantation only began to be a real prospect for patients with chronic renal failure in the mid…
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Peritoneal dialysis becomes a treatment for endstage renal disease
Many small improvements Peritoneal dialysis (PD) for endstage renal failure was first given as intermittent intensive treatments (IPD) given continuously for 1-2 days once weekly. Patients would generally have a new rigid PD catheter inserted each week under local anaesthetic, be treated for up to 48h, then receive no dialysis for 5 days. Its first…