The Artificial Kidney in Malaria and Blackwater Fever

Acute renal failure is one of the complications which for generations has been most dreaded in severe malaria and blackwater fever Maegraith (1944) pointed out that the mortality rate in blackwater fever was 20 to 25%/., and that approximately half these deaths resulted from renal failure. The use of the artificial kidney is a logical development in the manage- ment of renal failure occurring in severe Plasmodium falciparum infections with or without blackwater fever. To the best of our knowledge there are no reports in the literature of the use of an artificial kidney in malarial renal failure. We report the histories of four patients, three of whom were treated with the aid of an artificial kidney (Kolff twin-coil); two of these had severe cerebral malaria. A fourth patient's details are included, although he was not dialysed, because the history illustrates many points in the management and move- ment of these patients.