Historical Note The 50th anniversary of haemodialysis in Krakow, Poland

Dialysis treatment, which is one of the methods of renal replacement therapy, is without a doubt one of the mile-stones in the development of medicine over the last 100 years. The method dates back to 1913, when John Abel, Leonard Rowntree and Bernard Turner of the USA suc-ceeded in developing the first haemodialysis machine and performed the pioneering experiments on dogs. The first human haemodialysis session was performed in Giessen, Germany by Georg Haas in 1924. One year before that, Georg Ganter, also in Germany, performed the first peritoneal dialysis in human. However, it is the Dutch Willem Kolff who, by general consent, takes the credit for being the pioneer of haemodialysis. During the Second World War, he designed his own haemodialysis machine and used it to save the life of his patient with acute renal failure. After the war, another artificial kidney was designed in Lund, Sweden by Nils Alwall and was first used for haemodialysis in 1946. The Lund clinic went on to become one of the major European dialysis centres, where a number of Polish doctors were trained, later transferring their experience onto th