Neil Turner

Bombs and rhabdomyolysis: War leads to the discovery of a new renal disease

In the Summer of 1940, the German Luftwaffe switched its bombing targets from English airfields and aircraft factories to cities, and in September 1940 large scale air raids on London began. Shortly afterwards, a new type of acute renal failure was noticed in some of those rescued from fallen buildings.

The story of early peritoneal dialysis

The beginnings of haemodialysis have been described many times, but few know that the first successful peritoneal dialysis antedated the first successful haemodialysis by 7 years. Peritoneal dialysis was undertaken alongside haemodialysis in most renal units from the early 1960s, but also in many hospitals without renal units, and numbers are poorly recorded.

The evolution of peritoneal dialysis for end-stage renal disease: Medical challenges on its way to success

Peritoneal dialysis (PD) for end-stage renal failure was first given as intermittent intensive treatments (IPD) given continuously for 1–2 days once weekly. Patients would generally have a new rigid PD catheter inserted each week under local anaesthetic, be treated for up to 48 hours, then receive no dialysis for 5 days. Its first use this way is attributed to Richard Ruben in 1959, but the shortage of haemodialysis (HD) facilities led to it being widely used, despite its many problems, in the 1960s and 1970s. Even in the early 1980s some patients were being treated by intermittent puncture IPD in the UK.

Dialysis in the UK in 1959 How dialysis caught on in the UK 50 years ago

In 1958 there were only three renal units operating in the UK: at Leeds, Hammersmith, and RAF Halton. The Leeds unit had been the first, using a modified version of the original Kolff dialysis machine, but the other two units had newer technology made by Travenol with Kolffs help. This was a machine that looked rather like a washing machine, but was more controllable and used disposable artificial kidneys (coils). 1959 was the beginning of a boom, with new renal units opening in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Belfast and London.