A medical infusion fluid handling system, such as an automated peritoneal dialysis system, may be arranged to de-cap and connect one or more lines (such as solution lines) with one or more spikes or other connection ports on a fluid handling cassette. This feature may reduce a likelihood of contamination since no human interaction is required to de-cap and connect the one or more lines and the one or more spikes. For example, the automated peritoneal dialysis system may include a carriage arranged to receive the one or more lines each having a connector end and a cap. The carriage may move along a first direction so as to move the connector ends of the one or more lines along the first direction, and a cap stripper may be arranged to engage with the caps on the solution lines on the carriage. The cap stripper may move in a second direction transverse to the first direction, as well as to move with the carriage along the first direction.

A medical treatment system, such as a peritoneal dialysis system, may include a control and other features to enhance patient comfort and ease of use. For example, a cycler device may include a heater bag receiving section and a lid mounted to cover and uncover the heater bag receiving section, potentially enabling faster heating of a dialysate. A user interface may be moveable to be received into the receiving section and covered by the lid, if desired. The system may detect anomalous conditions, such as tilting of a housing of the system, and automatically recover without terminating a treatment. The system may include noise reduction features, such as porting pneumatic outputs to a common chamber, and others. The system may also automatically detect any one of several different solution lines connected to the system, and control operation accordingly, e.g., to mix solutions provided by two or more lines and form a needed dialysate solution. A cassette control surface may be arranged to have one or more ports that can detect a presence of a liquid, e.g., to identify if a cassette is leaking or has otherwise been compromised.

A system includes a dialyzer having a blood side and a dialysate side, a first extracorporeal circuit including one or more first fluid connectors structurally configured to connect the blood side of the dialyzer to the vascular system of a kidney patient, and a second extracorporeal circuit including one or more second fluid connectors structurally configured to connect the dialysate side of the dialyzer to the vascular system of a healthy animal. The present teachings may thus include a system where hemodialysis is performed using a healthy animal (e.g., a person with normal kidney function) to help remove harmful solutes from, and provide helpful solutes to, a kidney patient. In this manner, the healthy animal is “virtually donating” its kidney function to the kidney patient.

A fluid handling cassette, such as that useable with an automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) cycler device or other infusion apparatus, may include a generally planar body having at least one pump chamber formed as a depression in a first side of the body and a plurality of flowpaths for a fluid that includes a channel. A patient line port may be arranged for connection to a patient line and be in fluid communication with the at least one pump chamber via at least a first one of said flowpaths, and an optional membrane may be attached to the first side of the body over the at least one pump chamber. In one embodiment, the membrane may have a pump chamber portion with an unstressed shape that generally conforms to the depression of the at least one pump chamber in the body and is arranged to be movable for movement of the fluid in a useable space of the at least one pump chamber. One or more spacers may be provided in the at least one pump chamber to prevent the membrane from contacting an inner wall of the at least one pump chamber. The patient line, a drain line, and/or a heater bag line may be positioned to be separately occludable in relation to one or more solution lines that are connectable to the cassette.

Components for a medical infusion fluid handling system, such as an APD system, in which one or more lines (such as solution lines), spikes or other connection ports may be automatically capped and/or de-capped. This feature may provide advantages, such as a reduced likelihood of contamination since no human interaction is required to de-cap and connect the one or more lines, the spikes or the other connection ports. For example, a fluid handling cassette may include one or more caps that cover a corresponding spike and include a raised and/or recessed feature to assist in removal of the one or more caps from the cassette. A solution line cap may include a hole and a recess, a groove or other feature to engage with a spike cap and enable removal of the spike cap.

An implantable or wearable kidney enclosure that is cylindrical, ovoid, or otherwise non-angular e.g., not rectangular or cuboid), having a circular or oval hemofilter that provides a blood flow pattern from an internal, central artery source radially outwards. Due to the efficient flow of the circular filter design, the enclosure can be made in a cylindrical low profile shape, resulting in a compact enclosure highly suitable for implantable and wearable dialysis applications.

A method for operating a portable dialysis device, comprising the following steps: continuously and alternately filling and emptying a hydraulic chamber with hydraulic fluid by a pump, wherein upon filling the hydraulic chamber, an at least partially flexible delivery membrane is moved towards a blood chamber adjoining the hydraulic chamber, in which blood is received, and wherein the blood flows tangentially along an inner wall of the blood chamber through an inlet side, whereby the blood chamber is compressed to eject the blood, and enhancing a return flow of the blood from the blood chamber while avoiding dead points in the flow in the blood chamber, and wherein upon emptying the hydraulic chamber, the delivery membrane is moved away from the blood chamber so that the blood chamber expands to receive the blood, so that a continuous, alternate compression and expansion of the blood chamber by the delivery membrane occurs, such that a continuous uninterrupted exchange of the blood in the blood chamber is performed while avoiding the formation of thrombi.

There is described a method of use of a mass exchanger. In the method the mass exchanger comprises: a first channel for accommodating flow of a liquid to be treated; and a second channel for accommodating flow of a treatment agent, the first and second channels have a permeable membrane provided between them, so as to allow transfer of selected species between the first channel and the second channel. The steps of the mass transfer method comprise passing the liquid to be treated along the first channel and introducing a mixture of liquid and gas into the second channel to provide a two-phase treatment agent. It is desirable to provide a means of adjusting the concentration of gas species in a liquid such as blood, while simultaneously controlling the temperature of the liquid and optionally adjusting the concentration of ionic and/or dissolved species in that liquid. By this method and mass exchanger providing a two-phase treatment agent, it is possible to simultaneously deliver gaseous species (e.g. oxygen) into the treated liquid, while making use of the high heat capacity of the liquid phase of the treatment agent to transfer significant heat into or from the treated liquid.

A hemofiltration device capable of surely performing highly-efficient hemofiltration. The hemofiltration device of the present invention is adapted to be implanted in a mammalian body for filtering blood, and includes a blood flow path layer having a blood flow path, a filtrate flow path layer having a filtrate flow path disposed along the blood flow path, and a filtration membrane interposed between the blood flow path layer and the filtrate flow path layer, for filtering the blood flowing through the blood flow path. A filtrate outlet of the filtrate flow path is provided at a position closer to a blood outlet than to a blood inlet of the blood flow path. The blood inlet, blood outlet, and filtrate outlet are provided only on one side or separately on opposite sides of a main body portion in the direction in which the layers are stacked.

Various systems and methods relating to two-dimensional materials such as graphene. A membrane include a cross-linked graphene platelet polymer that includes a plurality of cross-linked graphene platelets. The cross-linked graphene platelets include a graphene portion and a cross-linking portion. The cross-linking portion contains a 4 to 10 atom link. The cross-linked graphene platelet polymer is produced by reaction of an epoxide functionalized graphene platelet and a (meth)acrylate or (meth)acrylamide functionalized cross-linker.