Importance

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Abstract

A device for selectively controlling the direction of blood flow to and from the patient during hemodialysis comprises two interlocking disks that rotate in relation to each other without separating. The two disks have fluid fittings that allow the blood lines attached to the patient to connect to one of the disks and the blood inlet and outlet for the hemodialysis machine to connect to the other. The center of each fluid fitting is a channel that aligns to a corresponding channel in the other disk. The disks rotate between two fixed relative positions, referred to herein as preferred alignments. The preferred alignments are such that the line drawing blood from the patient in the first preferred alignment becomes the line returning blood to the patient in the second preferred alignment, and the line returning blood to the patient in the first preferred alignment becomes the line drawing blood from the patient in the second preferred alignment. A bypass channel allows blood to flow from the outlet to the inlet of the hemodialysis machine when the device is in neither of its two preferred alignments.

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First Claim