[Clinical aspects of the use of the artificial kidney]

During the last years the haemodialysis treatment in chronic uraemia has been admirably developed and improved. At now as ever high expenditure for the chronic dialysis programme the capacity at our disposal must optimally be used. For this it is necessary to detoxicate the patients in relatively short times of treatment as effective as possible. But the increase of the efficacy of the haemodialysis is limited, which is revealed in the fact that the patient under the highly effective treatment shows complications such as decrease of blood pressure, muscle spasms, nausea and vomiting as well as headache. The clinical findings of the patient may further depend on the age, on the dialysis technique being at our disposal, on the composition of the dialysis solution, the biocompatibility of the dialysis membrane, the level of the retention values as well as on nutrition, training condition of the patient, psychic factors and others. The scientific efforts for optimization of the haemodialysis treatment have the aim to realize a haemodialysis treatment adapted individually to each patient, in order to treat the individual patient as effective as possible, however, without complications.