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Show New Take-Home Kidney chase a steady supply 0f heparin, a drug to keep the blood from clotting in the coils. But the overall cost is still much lower than the $15,000 to $20,000 per year in-hospital machines "We are trying all the' time to find ways to lower the costs," Dr. Brown added. "There can be no doubt that we must do this." The ai mof the new device is to The aim of the new device is to homes so that they can live somewhat some-what normal lives, while waiting for kidney transplants to be improved im-proved and made available to them. By CHKISS SCOTT ( Cluonicle Staff Writer iNew hope has been given to thousands thou-sands of persons suffering from in- v curable kidney diseases through aC the perfection of a new, low-cost 0 kidney for home use. The machine !;.s has been developed by doctors at :iC the University's Medical Center. if Dr. Willem Kolff invented the device de-vice which costs about $700. He was also the developer of the world's first artificial kidney and is s nov the head of the Division of Artificial Organs at the University. b Take Machine Home r kl The first of the patients, Mrs. Jack H. Cremer, Jr. of Sparks, f' Nevada, has taken the machine home and is using it three times a ?; week to remove impurities from k her blood. Last year at the Cleveland Clinic at; in Ohio, Mrs. Cremer underwent a kidney transplant operation, but her body rejected the organ and doctors removed it. She is now living liv-ing without kidneys, existing totally 1 on Dr. Kolff's new machine. Dr. Fredrick G. Brown, who supervises sup-ervises the Medical Center's Home Hi Dialysis Program, said patients and 15 their families are trained to operate ci the machine by themselves. They even learn how to handmake their I own disposable, cellophane coils !jj which must be replaced for each dialysis. r ' . ' I R ; i Fa ' 'T v f i ' i I' ""! - I Jack Cremer, Jr., checks the blood pressure of his wife, Sandra, as she is dialyzed on new, low-cost artificial kidney developed by doctors at the University of Utah. According to Dr. Brown, the average av-erage patient must be hooked up sd to the machine for six hours, three m times a week. Their blood is re-:ej re-:ej moved from their bodies through i a "shunt" surgically implanted in atf an artery and a vein in either the at arm or leg. tec The blood courses through a sys- tem of plastic tubing and into four & coils immersed in a circulating salt solution. Through a process of se-j se-j lective osmosis, impurities are re-moved re-moved through the cellophane and the blood courses back into the patient's body. Cost Inhibits jP0 ' Some patients are able to pump the blood through the tubing by the ? power of their own hearts. Other ; patients with weaker hearts use a supplemental blood pump. : Cost is still an inhibiting factor, since it requires about $4000 per year to operate the new kidney, according to Dr. Brown. For each dialysis, plastic tubing, cellephane coils and solutions must be replaced. re-placed. Patients must also pur- |