Long-life dialysis graft
An invention by researchers at the University of Limerick (UL) could reduce the number of surgeries among dialysis patients.
The Prolong AV graft, recently granted a US patent, aims to significantly reduce the chance of failure within the first two years.
UL researchers Prof Tim McGloughlin and Dr Michael Walsh are co-inventors of the Prolong AV graft along with Prof Pierce Grace, consultant vascular surgeon at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital and Adjunct Professor of Surgical Science at UL.
Prof Tim McGloughlin said: ‘I am confident that the design features of the Prolong AV graft would lead to substantially superior performance compared to the grafts currently used.’
Dialysis access is necessary in patients with End Stage Renal Disease. These patients require dialysis, a process by which the blood is cleaned in a machine external to the body. The process requires access to the circulating blood and this is usually done in the forearm where blood is taken from the arm, passed through the dialysis machine and returned to the circulation again through the arm.
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