Heparin-free hypothermal hemodialysis at 20 degrees C improves biocompatibility

We investigated the effect of cooling blood to 20 degrees C on the reactions and dialysis efficiency in a model using pigs. Eighteen uremic pigs were hemodialyzed. Nine pigs were hemodialyzed cooling the blood in the dialysis filter and rewarmed using microwaves to body temperature before being returned to the pigs; no heparin was added. Nine pigs (control group) were dialyzed using heparin without blood cooling. A significant decrease in the number of leukocytes was observed after 15 min in the control group, whereas no change was observed in the hypotherm-dialyzed group. We conclude that heparin-free hemodialysis performed at 20 degrees C with microwave rewarming is possible, improving biocompatibility significantly.