Historically, Dr. Willem Kolff is considered as the father of dialysis. This young Dutch doctor constructed the first dialyzer (artificial kidney) in 1943. The path to creating this innovation for its time began in the late 1930s when he worked in a small ward at the University Hospital in Groningen, the Netherlands.
The idea of developing a blood purification machine was born for Dr. Kolf after observing a patient suffering from kidney failure. He decided to find a way to develop a machine to replace the work of the kidneys. When his invention was complete, he attempted to treat over a dozen patients with acute kidney failure over the next two years. Although only one of the treatments performed proved successful, he continued to experiment in improving his design. However, Kolf’s device only treats acute kidney failure, not end-stage renal disease (ESRD).
Dr. Kolff’s invention is considered the first modern drum dialyzer and remained the standard for the next decade. After the end of World War II, he donated the five machines he made to hospitals around the world. One of those hospitals was Mount Sinai in New York, where he later moved to continue his research and scientific work.
The first patient in the world to be treated with repeated hemodialysis was Clyde Shields, whose first dialysis was in Seattle, USA, on March 9, 1960.
Dr. Belding Scribner, a professor of medicine at the University of Washington, has developed a way for patients with end-stage kidney failure to receive treatment through an access point in their arm. In 1962, Dr. Scribner opened the first formal dialysis clinic for patients. Subsequently, he also developed a portable dialysis machine that allows patients to receive this type of treatment at home.