JPS5930427B2 - Hollow-fiber artificial kidney cleaning method and device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for cleaning filling fluid for an artificial kidney using hollow fibers.

Artificial kidneys have been put into practical use that perform dialysis by converging hollow fibers made of a semipermeable membrane polymeric material and bringing blood and dialysate into contact with each other through the hollow fibers.

This type of hollow fiber artificial kidney is typically sterilized using formaldehyde, which must be removed prior to hemodialysis treatment.

However, conventionally there has been no method for sufficiently and reliably cleaning and removing formaldehyde.

That is, as an example of a conventional cleaning method, after flowing dialysate in a single pass method for about 30 minutes on the dialysate side of a hollow fiber artificial kidney, medicinal water is poured on the blood side for about 100 m.
Flow at 2.51 single pass method at 1/min.

Immediately after pouring this medicinal water for 2.5 hours, the amount of formaldehyde was confirmed to be several liters, and when left for another 7 hours, the amount of formaldehyde increased to 10.
00-150 pI] resulting in a concentration of Il+.

This is not preferable because 100 to 150 p4 of formaldehyde enters the body from the hollow fiber artificial kidney used for about 6 hours of dialysis treatment.

In addition, if air enters the blood side of a hollow fiber artificial kidney, it will cause an airlock, and this airlock may cause blood clotting within the artificial kidney during hemodialysis treatment, so human supervision is required. Conventional cleaning methods have the disadvantage that cleaning operations are extremely troublesome.

Therefore, as a result of extensive research in order to overcome all of the above-mentioned drawbacks, the inventors have found that a sterile and pyrogen-free cleaning solution, such as sterile distilled water or physiological saline, is used on the blood side of the hollow fiber artificial kidney. By circulating water using a medical water pump and simultaneously flowing water or dialysate to the dialysate side in a single pass method, the amount of medical water required for washing is small and the formaldehyde concentration immediately after washing is significantly reduced. Therefore, even if you leave it for about 7 hours after washing, formaldehyde will be released! It was found that the amount was less than 5 oppm.

It has also been found that since the cleaning fluid on the blood side is circulated, it is possible to prevent air from entering the system, and therefore an automatic device that does not require human supervision can be achieved.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, a general object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for cleaning a hollow fiber artificial kidney, which is simple in construction and capable of efficiently cleaning a sterile filling solution using a relatively small amount of cleaning fluid. be.

The main object of the present invention is to provide a method for cleaning a hollow fiber artificial kidney, which is characterized by circulating a cleaning fluid to the blood supply side and simultaneously flowing water or dialysate to the dialysate supply side. It is on offer.

In addition, when implementing the above-mentioned cleaning method, a circulation tube constituting a cleaning fluid circulation circuit is connected to the blood supply side of the artificial kidney through a pump device and an air vent chamber, and a single-pass system is connected to the dialysate supply side. It has been found that by connecting a dialysate supply pipe and appropriately supplying the washing fluid to be transferred to the circulation pipe for dialysis, it is possible to most efficiently wash the artificial kidney with the sterilized filling fluid.

Therefore, another object of the present invention is to connect a cleaning fluid circulation supply pipe to the blood supply side of a hollow fiber artificial kidney through a pump and an air vent chamber, and to connect a part of this cleaning fluid circulation supply pipe via a conduit. It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for carrying out the above-mentioned washing method, characterized in that the washing liquid storage tank is communicated with the dialysing liquid supply side and a dialysing liquid supply pipe is connected to the dialysing liquid supply side.

In addition to formaldehyde, various sterilizing solutions and physiological saline are used as the filling liquid used to sterilize and preserve the hollow fiber artificial kidney, and the method and device of the present invention can also be used in these cases. Of course, it can be applied effectively.

Next, a method for cleaning a hollow fiber artificial kidney using formaldehyde as a filling liquid will be described in detail below in relation to an apparatus for carrying out this method.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 10 indicates a hollow fiber type artificial kidney, and a closed circuit is constructed on the blood supply side of this artificial kidney 10 via a pump 12 suitable for blood transfer and an air vent chamber 14. Connect the circulation pipe 16.

A conduit 18 is connected to a part of this circulation pipe 16, and this conduit 1
A cleaning liquid storage tank 20 is connected to the other end of the cleaning liquid storage tank 8 .

Note that as the cleaning liquid, sterile distilled water or medical water such as physiological saline is preferably used.

On the other hand, a dialysate conduit 22 is provided on the dialysate supply side of the artificial kidney 10.
to supply dialysate or water in a single pass.

In this way, the formaldehyde in the artificial kidney 10 is efficiently removed by circulating washing water to the blood supply side of the sterile artificial kidney 10 immersed in formalin solution and simultaneously supplying dialysate or water to the dialysate supply side. Can be washed well.

In other words, the amount of cleaning solution consumed can be reduced to 1/3 to 1/4 compared to the conventional single-pass method, the formaldehyde concentration immediately after cleaning is reduced to several ppm, and the concentration of formaldehyde is reduced to several ppm after being left for about 7 hours. However, the amount of formaldehyde released was less than 50 ppI11, and it was confirmed that it could be maintained within 1/2 to 1/3 compared to conventional cleaning methods (see Figure 2).

It should be noted that the insufficient amount of washing water transferred from the blood supply side to the dialysate side by ultrafiltration during the washing operation is replenished from the washing liquid storage tank 20 to the circulation pipe 16 as appropriate.

Furthermore, according to the cleaning method of the present invention, a small amount of cleaning liquid is supplied to the blood supply side, and the amount of cleaning liquid decreases during cleaning circulation is small.
It can be almost completely prevented by using 4.
This method eliminates the need for human supervision, which was required in conventional cleaning methods, and has the advantage that automatic control and safety of the device can be easily achieved.

The cleaning method according to the present invention has been described above for cleaning artificial kidneys that have been sterilized and stored using formaldehyde as a filling liquid, but the present invention also covers other filling liquids, such as sterilizing electrolytes and physiological saline. It goes without saying that not only the method of the invention can be suitably used, but also the apparatus for carrying out the method can be modified in various ways without departing from the spirit of the invention.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system diagram showing an example of an apparatus for carrying out the method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a characteristic curve diagram comparing the amount of formaldehyde eluted by the method of the present invention with that by a conventional method. 10...Artificial kidney, 12...Pump,
14...Air bleeding chamber, 16...
・Circulation pipe, 1, 8... Conduit, 20...
・Washing liquid storage tank, 22... Dialysate conduit, A...
...Formaldehyde elution amount curve according to the method of the present invention, B...Formaldehyde elution amount curve according to the conventional method.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A method for cleaning a hollow fiber artificial kidney, characterized in that in the hollow fiber artificial kidney, a cleaning fluid is circulated and supplied to the blood supply side, and at the same time, water or dialysate is allowed to flow to the dialysate supply side. 2. A cleaning fluid circulation supply pipe is connected to the blood supply side of the hollow fiber artificial kidney through a pump device and an air vent chamber, and a cleaning fluid storage tank is connected to a part of this cleaning fluid circulation supply pipe via a conduit, and the dialysate is An apparatus for carrying out the cleaning method according to claim 1, characterized in that a dialysate supply pipe is connected to the supply side.