In a boon to thousands of people suffering from chronic kidney disease who are now being kept alive by dialysis machines and tied themselves to a hospital bed for hours can now get enormously relieved when a fist-sized artificial kidney hits the market, by the end of the decade.

Dr. Shuvo Roy, the co-inventor of the device and researcher of the University of California, San Francisco had said that the device engineered in America has to undergo a series of safety and efficacy trials on many patients before it gets approval.He said  at the Tanker annual charity and awards night that it can be implanted in the abdomen powered by the heart, is designed for filtration of blood and to function like other kidney.

The device can be implanted in the abdomen and that can be powered by the heart is designed to filter the blood and perform kidney functions, including production of hormones and help to assist in the blood pressure control, he said.

Unlike conventional haemodialysis, which merely filters toxins from the blood, the artificial kidney has a membrane that can filter the blood and a bio-reactor comprising of living kidney cells that are exposed to the blood during dialysis.

"It performs the job of a kidney more holistically than just conventional dialysis," he said.

"Getting an organ is still not easy. So patients with end-stage renal diseases will have to be on regular dialysis and medicines," said nephrologist Dr Georgie Abraham.

By Premji