Control of blood temperature and thermal energy balance during hemodialysis

In hemodialysis, the supervision and control of body temperature and thermal energy balance in the extracorporeal circuit can help to avoid hypotensive episodes. A feedback control of these parameters, which is not performed in today´s treatments, can be achieved by influencing dialysate temperature. A Blood Temperature Monitor (BTM) was built which measures arterial and venous blood temperatures and performs control on either body temperature or extracorporeal thermal energy balance automatically. The control algorithms and examples from clinical applications are presented.