Products Catalog

Specification

A dialyzer is often referred to as an “artificial kidney.� Its function is to remove the excess wastes and fluid from the blood, when the patient’s kidneys can no longer perform that task.

Dialyzers are made of a thin, fibrous material. The fibers form a semipermeable membrane, which allows smaller particles and liquids to pass through. The dialyzer is encased in a sealed plastic cylinder about a foot long and approximately two to three inches in diameter with openings at the top and bottom. During treatment dialysate (dialysis solution) and your blood flow through the dialyzer (but they never touch). Fresh dialysate from the machine enters your dialyzer through one opening and blood enters through the other. Wastes are filtered out of your blood into the dialysate. Dialysate containing waste products leaves the dialyzer and is washed down the drain, while the cleaned blood goes back into your body.

Dialyzers can remain functional after more than one use, which is why many facilities reuse them. Dialyzers are reused for a certain number of times or until it no longer works efficiently, whichever comes first. Each doctor sets his or her own policy for the maximum number of reuses. Some dialysis facilities do not reuse dialyzers, and patients at those facilities are given new dialyzers for each hemodialysis session.
Patients are given the choice of whether or not to reuse their dialyzers. Facilities that reuse must follow strict guidelines to ensure the reused dialyzers are labeled with the patient’s name, cleaned properly, sterilized and working so the patient can have an optimal dialysis treatment.