36 years of renal services at the Belfast City Hospital: looking back.

The artificial kidney was first used successfully by Dr Wilhem Kolff in the Netherlands, during the Second World War. At the end of the War he published his results,' and gave three of his machines to centres abroad. One was given to Hammersmith Hospital in London, leading to great interest in kidney diseases there. Dr Graham Bull (later Sir Graham) one of the group ofyoung men working there, with his colleagues developed a very useful method of treatment of kidney failure, based on control of fluid intake, a special diet providing calories for nutrition with minimum production of waste products, and isolation of the patient to prevent infection. This "conservative treatment", that is without the use of the artificial kidney, is adequate for patients with less serious temporary renal failure. In 1952 Graham Bull came to Belfast as our first full-time Professor of Medicine. He introduced here the use of the by then famous Bull-Borst diet for treatment of patients with kidney failure.