Examples of the Kolff rotating drum kidney crossed the Atlantic after the Second World War and landed at the Peter Brent Brigham Hospital in Boston, where they underwent a significant technical improvement. The modified machines became known as the Kolff-Brigham kidney, and between 1954 and 1962 were shipped from Boston to 22 other hospitals worldwide.



Paul Teschan performing acute dialysis during the Korean War (1952)


The Kolff-Brigham kidney had passed its practical test under extreme conditions during the Korean War. At that time, eight of ten injured soldiers with post-traumatic kidney failure died. Major Paul Teschan, a military doctor with the U.S. Army, was familiar with the work at the Peter Brent Brigham Hospital and took one of the machines from the Walter Reed Army Hospital to a MASH (Mobile Army Surgical Hospital) unit in Korea where he used 72 treatments to dialyze 31 patients. Under the most extreme conditions, the use of dialysis was able to significantly increase the average survival rate of the severely ill patients and win time for additional medical procedures.