Hemofilter reuse in maintenance hemofiltration.
The practice of multiple use of hemofilter was examined on 16 patients in our dialysis center. The hemofilters were cleaned by reverse ultrafiltration using positive pressure in the blood and filtrate compartment of the hemofilter. Ten hemofilters used for continuous arteriovenous hemofiltration, 6 hemofilters used for pump-assisted acute hemofiltration and seventy hemofilters used for chronic maintenance hemofiltration were studied for the clearances of urea nitrogen and creatinine and sieving coefficients of albumin and electrolytes. Hemofilters were successfully reused in pump-assisted acute hemofiltration and chronic hemofiltration. In continuous arteriovenous hemofiltration, hemofilters could not be reused mainly because of clotting of fibers. The practice is safe, efficient and highly cost-saving.
Lai
K N
KN
Department of Medicine, Prince of Wales Hospital, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin.
Lai
F M
FM
Leung
A C
AC
Swaminathan
R
R
D004866:Equipment Contamination; D006440:Hemofiltration / Q000191:economics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning