Implantable artificial kidney

Abstract

An artificial kidney adapted to be implanted in the human body comprising a housing including a diffusion chamber and a dialysate bath chamber. A plurality of microtubules, preferably torqued or spiraled, are arranged substantially vertically in the diffusion chamber. Each microtubule has at least three longitudinal passages therethrough, an arterial passage, a venous passage, and at least one urinary passage, one of the urinary passages extending co-extensively between the arterial and the venous passages, and being separated by walls permeable to waste products from the bloodstream. The arterial and venous blood from the body flow counter-currently through each microtubule, so that the chemical imbalance between the arterial bloodstream and the venous bloodstream causes diffusion across the urinary passage, and the waste products are collected in, and discharged from, the urinary passage. Venous blood from the body is first transported through the dialysate bath chamber for chemical enrichment prior to its flow through the venous passages in the microtubules. The only external function required for operating the kidney is the occasional re-supply of dialysate solution into the dialysate bath.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.