Renal Assist Device Reduces Mortality Due to Acute Renal Failure

A new study shows that short-term treatment with a renal assist device (RAD) substantially improves survival in patients with acute renal failure when added to conventional dialysis.

Researchers at the University of Michigan (U-Mich, Ann Arbor, USA), the University of Alabama (Birmingham, USA), and other institutions, evaluated RAD treatment in 58 patients with acute renal failure secondary to acute tubular necrosis. Forty patients were randomized to continuous venovenous hemofiltration plus RAD (comprised of a conventional hemofiltration cartridge lined with monolayers of nonautologous renal tubule cells), and 18 to continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) alone. RAD treatment was initiated within 3.5 days of starting CRRT, and median treatment duration with the RAD device was 36 hours, with a maximum 72 hours.

The study found that at day 28, the mortality rate was 33% in the RAD group and 61% in the control group. During the same period, 53% of patients treated with RAD and 28% of patients treated with CRRT had recovered renal function. After adjusting for cause of kidney failure, the relative risk for death in the RAD group was significantly reduced by almost half by day 180. The study was published ahead of print on March 13, 2008, in the online edition of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

"Although dialysis removes waste products and corrects fluid imbalance, it does not perform the absorptive, metabolic, endocrine, and immunologic functions of normal renal tubule cells,” explained lead author H. David Humes. M.D., of U-Mich. "The ability to harness vital processes of cells, to target their living molecular machinery on restoring critical substances that have become disordered by disease, has vast implications for the future of medicine.”

The researchers hope that their investigations will help in the development of a wearable kidney device to treat chronic renal failure.


Related Links:
University of Michigan
University of Alabama