Patent ID: 7074332

Claim:
In a blood dialysis system including a source of substitution fluid and a blood dialysis machine, a hemodiafiltration/hemofiltration system comprising: a first dialyzer including: a first semi-permeable membrane partitioning said first dialyzer into: a first blood compartment having a first blood inlet which receives blood to be cleaned and a first blood outlet which discharges partially diafiltered blood; and a first dialysate compartment having a first dialysate inlet and a first dialysate outlet; a mixing chamber for mixing said partially diafiltered blood with substitution fluid from said source to obtain a blood/substitution fluid mixture, a dialysate conduit being connected at one end thereof to the first dialysate outlet for carrying spent dialysate fluid from the first dialysate compartment; a second hemofilter including: a second semi-permeable membrane partitioning said second hemofilter into: a second blood compartment having a second blood inlet which receives said blood/substitution fluid mixture and a second blood outlet which discharges filtered blood; and a second permeate compartment having a second permeate outlet that is connected to one end of a permeate conduit that is attached at its other end to the dialysate conduit for carrying plasma water from the second hemofilter; and a control feature for regulating filtration in at least one of the first dialyzer and the second hemofilter, wherein the control feature is disposed along the dialysate conduit proximate to the first dialysate outlet, with the permeate conduit being attached to the dialysate conduit downstream of the control feature.