ABSTRACT
Renal dialysis is a long-established treatment for acute and chronic renal failure: peritoneal dialysis was first used by Ganter in 1923, whereas hemodialysis, although introduced for the treatment of acute renal failure by Kolff in 1949, only became a practical treatment for chronic renal failure with the introduction of the Quinton-Scribner arteriovenous shunt in 1960. The use of double-lumen central venous dialysis cannulae is more recent.
