The wearable artificial kidney (WAK) is a device that is supposed to operate like a real kidney, which permits prolonged, frequent, and continuous dialysis treatments for patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Its functioning is mainly related to its pumping system, as well as to its dialysate-generating and alarm/shutoff ones. A pump is defined as a device that moves fluids by mechanical action. In such a context, blood pumps pull blood from the access side of the dialysis catheter and return the blood at the same rate of flow. The main aim of this paper is to review the current literature on blood pumps, describing the way they have been functioning thus far and how they are being engineered, giving details about the most important parameters that define their quality, thus allowing the production of a radar comparative graph, and listing ideal pumps' features.
© 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel.