OTD in Medical History - Dr. Kolff and Hemodialysis

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

This day marks an important milestone in medical history: the first hemodialysis run.

Hemodialysis, which is the process of using a machine to function as an artificial kidney, had its first successful application on March 17th, 1943. This was thanks to Dr. Willem Johan Kolff, the Dutch physician who developed the device and tested the process successfully at Kamper hospital in the Netherlands, during WWII. The first machine developed by Dr. Koff apparently featured supplies cobbled together from local industry including the use of a Model T water pump from a local Ford dealer.[1] Though there are other ways to perform dialysis other than hemodialysis, this procedure has undoubtedly saved millions of lives especially since even back in 2010, 2.5 million people worldwide relied on chronic kidney replacement therapies.[2]

[1] - Willem Kolff Foundation. https://www.willemkolffstichting.nl/index.php?phm=199
[2] - Hemodialysis. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33085443/

Max

[Doctor with a mustache]