Abstract
Today, management of irreversible renal failure is based primarily on maintenance hemodialysis and renal transplantation with a growing minority of patients treated by peritoneal dialysis. With regard to renal transplantation — the early promise of renal transplantation in the mid 1960's has given way to the realities of the late 1970's. There have been no major changes in the rejection rate of transplanted kidneys in recent years though today's mortality of transplant patients is considerably reduced over what it used to be. Moreover, universally the lack of availability of a sufficient number of organs for transplantation poses a formidable problem.
It is all too apparent that current methods of blood purification in uremia are far from optimal. Even though the mortality in maintenance dialysis is relatively low, hemodialysis is characterized by a variety of complications and most maintenance dialysis patients are not optimally rehabilitated.
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