Artificial kidney for premature infant
Print Edition
An extremely premature Polish infant weighing just 820 grams has become the world’s smallest and youngest patient to escape death thanks to an artificial kidney.
Born 15 weeks early, Kamil nearly died from organ failure a few days later and conventional methods used to keep preterm babies alive proved ineffective.
“He suffered grave edema” or water-retention causing swelling as his kidneys were unable to cope, doctor Wojciech Kowalik, head of the intensive care department of newborns at Legnica hospital in southwest Poland, said yesterday.
Being hooked up to an artificial kidney was his only hope, but the procedure had never been successful in such an extreme preterm case. Similar treatment is usually applied to newborns weighing at least three kilograms. The treatment only worked for half of the 10 newborns who needed it at the Legnica hospital, according to Kowalik.
“For a baby weighing just 820 grams, it’s exceptional. We later learnt that he was the smallest in the world to survive thanks to this method. It has already been tried with children as small, but none survived,” Kowalik added.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
