Implantable artificial kidney

Claim 1

An implantable artificial kidney, comprising: an outer cover having a shape of a natural kidney and formed with a lobe for affixing the artificial kidney in a living human body; a blood inlet leading into said cover and connectable to a renal artery of the living human body; a blood outlet leading from said cover and connecting to a renal vein of the living human body; a urine outlet leading from said cover and connectable to a ureter of the living human body; a glomerulus in said cover formed with a plurality of convolutions of an inner blood tube surrounded by an outer filtrate tube and separated therefrom over a collective length of said inner blood tube and said outer filtrate tube by a permeable wall of said inner blood tube forming an ultrafilter permitting filtration of an aqueous component of blood traversing said inner blood tube and dissolved substances in said aqueous component, said inner blood tube being connected at one end to said blood inlet and having an opposite end; and a tubule system below said glomerulus in said cover and having a plurality of convolutions of an inner filtrate tube connected at a cross-over point to said outer filtrate tube and an outer blood tube surrounding said inner filtrate tube and connected at said cross-over point to said opposite end of said inner blood tube, said outer blood tube and said inner filtrate tube being separated by a porous wall permitting oncotic pressure to effect passage of a major portion of water from said inner filtrate tube into said outer blood tube, said outer blood tube being connected to said blood outlet and said inner filtrate tube being connected to said urine outlet, said outer tubes having impermeable outer walls.