Dual-ventricle pump cartridge, pump and method of use in a wearable continuous renal replacement therapy device

1. A completely wearable artificial kidney (WAK) device comprising:

a blood circuit;

a dialysate circuit;

a dual channel pulsatile pump comprising:

a first channel for pumping the blood through said blood circuit and a second channel for pumping dialysate through said dialysate circuit; each of said first channel and said second channel comprising:

a peristaltic tube that is compressible, said peristaltic tube having an input end and an output end;

an input valve at the input end, said input valve comprising an input o-ring, an input ball adapted to seat against said input o-ring to stop fluid back flow through said input valve and an input spring member adapted to position said input ball against said input o-ring when the peristaltic tube is being compressed, said input spring member further adapted to allow the input ball to move away from said input o-ring and allow forward fluid flow through said input valve when said peristaltic tube decompresses, said input spring member comprises:

an outer ring having a first diameter;

an inner ring having a second diameter being smaller than the first diameter; and

at least two spokes extending radially from the inner ring to the outer ring;

the inner ring being adapted to move laterally with respect to a plane extending perpendicular to a center axis of the outer ring; and

an output valve at said output end, said output valve comprising an output o-ring, an output ball adapted to seat against said output o-ring to stop fluid back flow through said output valve and an output spring member adapted to position said output ball against said output o-ring when the peristaltic tube is being decompressed, said output spring member further adapted to allow the output ball to move away from said output o-ring and allow forward fluid flow through said output valve when said peristaltic tube is being compressed; and

a single electric motor and transmission that alternately compresses and decompress the peristaltic tube in said first channel and said peristaltic tube in said second channel; said dialysate circuit, said blood circuit, and said WAK adapted to be completely worn by said user.

2. The completely wearable artificial kidney (WAK) device of claim 1 , wherein said dual channel pulsatile pump is adapted to provide a blood flow rate through said blood circuit of between 15 and 100 ml/min pulsatile.

3. The completely wearable artificial kidney (WAK) device of claim 1 , wherein said dual channel pulsatile pump is configured to provide alternating pulses in the first and the second channels that are 180 degrees out of phase.

4. The completely wearable artificial kidney (WAK) device of claim 1 , wherein said dual channel pulsatile pump is configured to pump from 0 to 350 ml/min of blood in said blood circuit.

5. The completely wearable artificial kidney (WAK) device of claim 1 , wherein said dual channel pulsatile pump is configured to pump from 0 to 350 ml/min of and dialysate in the dialysate circuit.

6. A completely wearable artificial kidney (WAK) device comprising:

a blood circuit;

a dialysate circuit;

a dialyzer connected to both the blood circuit and the dialysate circuit, the dialyzer comprising a blood circuit input, a blood circuit output, a dialysate circuit input and a dialysate circuit output;

a dual channel pulsatile pump comprising:

a first channel for pumping blood through said blood circuit and a second channel for pumping dialysate through said dialysate circuit, wherein said first channel comprises:

a peristaltic tube that is compressible, said peristaltic tube having an input end and an output end;

an input valve at the input end, said input valve comprising an input ball seat, an input ball adapted to seat against said input ball seat to stop fluid back flow through said input valve and an input spring member comprising an outer ring, a concentric inner ring and at least two spokes extending radially between the outer ring and the concentric inner ring; the input spring member being placed and adapted to position the input ball against said input ball seat when the peristaltic tube is being compressed, said input spring member further adapted to allow the input ball to move away from said input ball seat thereby allowing forward fluid flow through said input valve when said peristaltic tube is being decompressed; and

an output valve at said output end, said output valve comprising an output ball seat, an output ball adapted to seat against said output ball seat to stop fluid back flow through said output valve and an output spring member adapted to position the output ball against said output ball seat when the peristaltic tube is being decompressed, said output spring member further adapted to allow the output ball to move away from said output ball seat thereby allowing forward fluid flow through said output valve when said peristaltic tube is being compressed;

said first channel and said second channel providing pump cycles that are out of phase, whereby the combination of the dialyzer and the dual channel pulsatile pump produce a pressure differential that varies periodically from about −10 to about +150 mmHg between the blood circuit input and the dialysate circuit input.

7. The completely wearable artificial kidney (WAK) device of claim 6 , wherein the first and second pump cycles are configured to be 180 degrees out of phase.

8. The completely wearable artificial kidney (WAK) device of claim 6 , wherein the blood and dialysate pass through the dialyzer in opposing directions.

9. The completely wearable artificial kidney (WAK) device of claim 6 , further comprising a pH control system within the wearable artificial kidney, the pH control system adapted to adjust the pH of the dialysate toward a predetermined pH.

10. The completely wearable artificial kidney (WAK) device of claim 6 , whereby the combination of the dialyzer and dual pulsatile pump are configured to perform hemodiafiltration and not purely hemodialysis.