ABSTRACT
The human kidney regulates water volume in the blood, maintains hemostasis, and removes toxins and byproducts of human metabolic functions such as urea and creatinine. Diseases of the kidney are caused primarily by acute infection, hypertension, and diabetes. There are typically three treatment options for patients suffering from chronic kidney disease (CKD) or end-stage renal disease (ESRD): kidney transplantation, peritoneal dialysis (PD), and hemodialysis (HD). Hemodialysis refers to the extracorporeal filtering of blood through an artificial kidney for the purpose of maintaining or supplementing kidney function. It is the primary treatment modality for CKD and ESRD patients. In this process, a blood circuit is formed when blood is drawn from a patient and circulated continuously past a membrane to remove small and middle molecular weight (MW) solutes normally passed by the kidney. The artificial kidney is comprised of several components, none of which is more critical to the survival of the patient than the dialysis membrane. It is the limiting step in determining the performance of a dialysis session.
