The artificial kidney was first developed by Abel, Rountree, and Turner in 1913, the first hemodialysis in a human being was by performed by Hass (February 28, 1924) and the artificial kidney was developed into a clinically useful apparatus by Kolff in 1943-1945.This research showed that life could be prolonged in patients dying of renal failure.

Willem Kolff was the first to construct a working dialyzer in 1943. The first successfully treated patient was a 67-year-old woman in uremic coma who regained consciousness after 11 hours of hemodialysis with Kolff's dialyzer in 1945.

Despite advances in therapies, poor management of diabetes has led to an unexpected rise in the number of patients requiring dialysis and other renal replacement therapies to sustain their lives.