artificial kidney

English

Noun

artificial kidney (plural artificial kidneys)

2. A dialysis machine, an external device that cleans the blood of people with kidney failure; from the 1940s to the 2000s, not portable, but wearable versions now exist.
   • 2013 June 1, “A better waterworks”, in The Economist‎^[1], volume 407, number 8838, page 5 (Technology Quarterly):

     An artificial kidney these days still means a refrigerator-sized dialysis machine. Such devices mimic the way real kidneys cleanse blood and eject impurities and surplus water as urine.

4. An implantable bionic device to replace the function of a natural kidney, long dreamed of but not yet feasible.
6. A bioengineered (laboratory-grown) biologic kidney (from cultured cells), still experimental.

   Synonym: kidney machine

Coordinate terms

• kidney transplant