The acu-men: a new device for continuous renal replacement therapy in acute renal failure.

Background: We sought to design a simple machine to safely provide continuous veno-venous hemofiltration to acute renal failure patients.

Results: The acu-men device uses a pneumatic blood pump with tidal blood flow as the driving force. A volumetric balancing system balances the filtrate with the replacement fluid, and the blood-air interface is eliminated by replacing the conventional venous drip chamber with two air-separating membranes. The extracorporeal circuit is integrated in a disposable cartridge, which is inserted into the machine at the beginning of treatment. The priming and rinsing is done automatically.

Conclusion: While preliminary data from an ongoing clinic trial on the efficacy of the device are encouraging, further long-term studies are necessary to evaluate its potential to decrease morbidity and mortality in acute renal failure patients.