Dialysis market

Fig. 13.2 The standardly used artificial kidney is a dialyzer that contains more them 10,000 capillary membranes. Blood is guided through these hollow fibers whereas the dieilysis fluid is perfused in an opposite direction. Due to size, reproducibility and perfection of engineering features this type of dialyzer now dominates the dialysis market, mostly as a single-use device, since many years. The annual production capacity for hoUow fibers in 2013 made from different polymers is about 450,000,000 km. This figure is equivalent to three-times the distance between the Earth and the sun...

Membranes from polysulfone dominate the dialysis market since many years. Today, 93 % of all synthetic membranes stem from the parent polyarylethersulfone... 

As of early 1992, the market for ceU culture-derived products approached 1 billion per year. The market is expected to grow substantially throughout the 1990s. CeU culture products include erythropoietin, 1991 sales of approximately 400 million, for the treatment of anemia associated with kidney dialysis, and tissue plasminogen activator, 1991 sales approximately 200 million, for treating heart attack victims with blocked arteries (see Cardiovascularagents). 

Many industrial yams have specific surface function requirements. For technical yams the market share for composites or coated fabrics is almost 70%. Furthermore, textile applications also can benefit from a special surface treatment in order to improve the water repellency. Capillary membranes for dialysis, however, have totally different requirements enhanced biocompatibility of the membranes is needed.4-6... 

The first widespread use of polymeric membranes for separation applications dates back to the 1960-70S when cellulose acetate was cast for desalination of sea and brackish waters. Since then many new polymeric membranes came to the market for applications extended to ultrafiltration, miciofiltration, dialysis, electrodialysis and gas separations. So far ultrafiltration has been used in more diverse applications than any other membrane processes. The choice of membrane materials is dictated by the application environments, the separation mechanisms by which they operate and economic considerations. Table 1.4 lists some of the common organic polymeric materials for various membrane processes. They include, in addition to cellulose acetate, polyamides. 

Solid phase extraction systems have been suceessfully automated (for example in the ASPEC system, marketed by Gilson). This allows samples to be applied to the cartridge and is linked on-line to the HPLC. An extension of this is the ASTED which combines dialysis with trace enrichment on a solid phase and is automatically coupled to the HPLC. These... 

As up to 10% of about 42 000 dialysis patients have suffered from renal insufficiency due to analgesic nephropathy (in the postphenacetin era), German nephrologists have demanded that medications that contain fixed combinations of analgesics (paracetamol, aspirin, or propyphenazone plus caffeine) be withdrawn from the market, following the example of their US colleagues in the National Kidney Foundation (27). 

Despite cessation of the exposure to Chinese herbs, progression of renal failure is usually relentless over a period of few months to several years. Six year after the withdrawal of the incriminated herbs from the Belgian market, more than 100 patients with CHN were confirmed in Belgium, 30 % of them having a moderate renal failure and 70 % being treated by maintenance dialysis or renal grafting [6]. 

In November 1991 Peter Grace, then seventy-nine years of age, announced that the company would divest 1.5 billion by the end of 1992 [with a] focus on six core closely related businesses where it is already a market leader flexible packaging, container sealants, construction products, water treatment, catalysts, and other silica-based products. In healthcare, Grace would divest itself of all its products except its highly specialized kidney dialysis service centers. 

---