Local think-tank innovation to rescue of kidney patients

After a locally produced insulin solution, ITI is now developing its own dialysis machine :

by Carol Aloysius

Kandy Hospital: Surgery in progress

Sri Lanka’s kidney patients may soon access cheaper treatment with a locally designed and produced dialysis machine, thanks to the innovation of our premier national tech think-tank, the Industrial Technology Institute.

The announcement Thursday, of a locally produced dialysis solution for kidney patients by the Industrial Technology Institute ( ITI) has injected fresh hope for thousands of patients with severely impaired kidneys caused by chronic kidney disease, and chronic kidney disease of unknown origin ( CkDu.) whose lives depend on an artificial kidney ( dialysis machines.)

“The need for dialysis machines is steadily growing in the country. So, when a team of nephrologists from the Kandy Teaching Hospital ( KTH) visited us with a request to develop- a local dialysis solution to overcome this problem, we readily agreed”, Director General ITI, Dr Prema Kumara told the Sunday Observer.

He said, the new dialysis solution would be given to fifteen patients at the KTH on a trial basis. “They are all volunteers from the Dialysis ward at the Kandy Teaching Hospital with severely impaired kidneys”, he said. The first experiment using the new product was on three patients at the hospital. “According to Hospital authorities, it was a success. We have now extended this trial run to fifteen patients from the same hospital. After a thorough research on all aspects of the experiment and the availability of facilities, the ITI and KTH will be meeting the Health Minister to get his approval, so that our project could move forward,” he said.

Asked to comment on the quality of the local product versus its imported counterpart which allegedly is imported from India and Pakistan, he said emphatically, “ We have ensured it is of the highest quality as it has been developed strictly adhering to British standards. We are handing over the technology to the KTH at their request”.

So, does the Kandy Hospital have the facilities to develop the dialysis solution, given the technology ?

“We have sufficient facilities and others we plan to obtain from the Health Ministry. All we needed was the technology to produce it”, said the Hospital Director, Dr Saman Ratnayaka, who welcomed the new product as a ‘ gift for all kidney patients across the country’. Disclosing the extent of government expenditure at present on importing dialysis solution he asked, “ Do you know that the government spends as much as sixty million rupees a year to import this dialysis solution mainly from Pakistan? We realized we could save the government a lot of money if we developed this product locally, as some of the chemicals used are already available locally.”

Separate ward

Before launching on their trail blazing experiment, which he said was in response to a request from a team of nephrologists from the Kandy Hospital, he said, the ITI had done a thorough study to assess the feasibility of producing dialysis solution locally.

He said, in recent years the number of patients requiring dialysis for kidney ailments had seen a rapid rise, with End stage patients requiring 2-3 hours of dialysis per session every third day.

Do these patients have to travel long distances from their remote villages every three days to undergo the treatment? Or does the hospital have alternative accommodation for them”? we asked Deputy Director KTH Dr Nissanka Wijeywardana. His response was, “Our Renal Unit has set aside a separate ward for them, which is apart from the general wards as these patients require to be in a sterile environment to prevent infection. If you visit our Renal Unit you will see that it is almost like a hospital with all modern facilities for kidney patients,” he added.

Kidney Transplant Unit

The Sunday Observer also spoke to the Coordinator, Kidney Transplant Program at the Hospital, Dr Anura Abeysinghe for his views on the new dialysis solution.

“The news is most welcome. We have been trying to produce such a solution locally for many years but lacked the technology. Now that we have it, thanks to the CISIR we can move forward”.

He said, currently there were four hundred kidney patients on frequent dialysis who needed urgent transplants, at the hospital . “Most of them are from the NCP and Uva provinces. The problem is obtaining matching kidneys for them . So we started our Organ Donation Program in 2002. Under this, there are two kinds of donors: 1) Live donors and 2) Brain dead. We are now looking at Deceased donors ( Cadavari Transplant). There are so many deceased persons with healthy kidneys, which if they had been donated to our program during their life time, could have saved hundreds of lives.”

Staff?

We asked if there were problems that needed to be wrinkled out, to benefit kidney patients in need of transplants

“Our problem is, when we admit a really sick patient, living far away , we don’t have hostel facilities for them. At present, the Presidential Task Force for Kidney ailments is building a special unit just for this purpose, which when completed will have rooms with fully equipped kitchens, dining rooms and toilets.

“ We have enough trained staff at the moment and the Department of Social Services has also given us some trained personnel to help with counselling of patients, etc.”

Any future plans?

We are planning to have a Vocational Training program to rehabilitate newly transplanted kidney patients. We are aiming at helping these people, who once they have undergone transplant surgery, may not be able to return to their jobs, e.g. carpentry, masonry or farming which may be too strenuous for them. We are in discussion with some companies, and the good news is that many of them have agreed to employ them”.

Local dialysis machine

As if this wasn’t enough good news for our long suffering kidney patients, the ITI has kept its best bit of news to the end: they are now toying with the idea of developing a locally made dialysis machine. In an exclusive disclosure to the Sunday Observer, Director General, ITI , Dr Prema Kumara said, “A single dialysis machine costs a lot of money and developing it locally can save a good deal of valuable foreign exchange the country needs badly.

So now we have obtained a used dialysis machine from the kidney unit and are currently doing reverse engineering to develop our own local product.” Asked how long it would take for his dream to materialize, he said, “it will take time . But we are working on it”.

Commenting on this future likelihood, Dr Rathnayaka said, “This is very good news to me. Such efforts are always commendable and should be encouraged at all times”.

For further information, readers may contact the Kandy General Hospital tel. 0812233337-42l.