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Bombs, earthquakes and rhabdomyolysis
Seventy years ago the Battle of Britain led to recognition of a new disease and to important discoveries about acute renal failure The Blitz, East London September 1940 (Wikimedia Commons) In the Summer of 1940, the German Luftwaffe switched its bombing targets from English airfields and aircraft factories to cities, and in September 1940…
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The first successful transplants, 1960-70
For patients, a last throw of the dice The first human transplants were heroic operations undertaken at a time when dialysis was not a long term option. A few outstanding stories kept hopes high, but in general, the outcome of these early experiments were down heartening. Photos: Linda Phillips in 1966, at the Western General…
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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…
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The unsung story of early peritoneal dialysis
The first successful mode of dialysis for acute renal failure and still not replaced The beginnings of haemodialysis have been described many times, but the first successful peritoneal dialysis probably antedated the first successful haemodialysis by 7 years. Peritoneal dialysis was undertaken alongside haemodialysis in most renal units from the early 1960s, but also in…
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Haemodialysis was first used successfully in 1945
Willem (‘Pim’) Kolff’s remarkable achievement Kolff is famously the man who first put the developing theory of therapeutic dialysis into successful practice in the most unlikely circumstances, in Kampen in the occupied Netherlands during World War 2. Influenced by a patient he had seen die in 1938, and in a remote hospital to avoid the…
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Dialysis in the UK in 1959
50 years ago dialysis suddenly caught on in the UK In 1958 there were only 3 renal units operating in the UK, at Leeds, Hammersmith, and RAF Halton. The Leeds unit had been the first, using a modified version of the original Kolff dialysis machine, but the other two units had newer technology made by…
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Welcome and Introduction
Once people thought that the kidney was run by little people … The aim here is to tell the story of nephrology and transplantation in random bite-sized chunks. So out of sequence, an eclectic selection, and perhaps it will all make sense in the end. The tags (labels) should help. Must remember to use them.…