Ich Denk’ es War Ein Gutes Jahr (Reinhard Mey, 1968) – The year 2010 Balance

Abstract

As Editors of the IJAO, we committed to consolidating its legacy and expanding its function of providing clinicians with updated information on available treatments based on artificial, bioartificial, and tissue engineered organs. A short analysis of this year’s contributions to the IJAO - without pretending to be exhaustive - provides interesting information on the evolution of the field. Many contributions focused on hemodialysis (HD) and filtration treatments of acute or chronic kidney failure patients, the actual legacy of the past. The analysis of these papers shows that current research mainly focuses on identifying factors that would improve the quality of life of HD patients. Guney et al (2) showed that socio-psychological factors, such as depression, the mental component score, age and unemployment, are the best predictors of poor sleep quality in HD patients. Materials used for the HD treatment and the administered drugs seem also to play a role. Matsumura et al (3) reported that HD with high flux polysulfone membranes at whose surface vitaminE was bonded could reduce intradialytic hypotension, presumably by reducing the intradialytic oxidative stress caused by dialyzer bioincompatibility. Davenport (4) reported that in HD treatments using a negative sodium gradient patients could be ultrafiltered without setting up intracompartmental fluid gradients. The poor reliability of current techniques to monitor sodium levels in dialysate and the patient limits this approach. Tao et al (5) reported that the use for one year of dialysate meeting the bacteriological purity requirements of some national agencies would almost double the serum level of lipoprotein (a) (Lp(a)), a risk factor for cardiovascular complications, whereas in patients treated with ultrapure dialysate Lp(a) levels did not increase significantly. Anemia in HD is generally treated with in