Improving the sustainability and quality of kidney health care through life cycle assessments, quality improvement, education and technical innovations: the KitNewCare approach.

The European Union (EU)-funded KitNewCare consortium aims to create and manage a comprehensive EU-wide programme focusing on sustainability in Kidney Care. Around 850 million people have chronic kidney disease (CKD) worldwide and by 2030, 6 million will need kidney replacement therapy, mainly haemodialysis. As the world population gets older, projections for the end of the century worsen.

Transportable, portable, wearable and (partially) implantable haemodialysis systems: comparison of technologies and readiness levels.

Background: Dialysis modalities and their various treatment schedules result from complex compromises ('trade-offs') between medical, financial, technological, ergonomic, and ecological factors. This study targets summarizing the mutual influence of these trade-offs on (trans)portable, wearable, or even (partially) implantable haemodialysis (HD) systems, identify what systems are in development, and how they might improve quality of life (QoL) for patients with kidney failure.

Methods: HD as defined by international standard IEC 60601-2-16 was applied on a PUBMED database query regarding (trans)portable, wearable, and (partly) implantable HD systems.

Animal Models for Studying Protein-Bound Uremic Toxin Removal-A Systematic Review.

Protein-bound uremic toxins (PBUTs) are associated with the progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD) and its associated morbidity and mortality. The conventional dialysis techniques are unable to efficiently remove PBUTs due to their plasma protein binding. Therefore, novel approaches are being developed, but these require validation in animals before clinical trials can begin.