Tempe’s Peripheral Intervention business unit of Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD) works on innovations for patients with kidney disease and supports local community efforts.
As many as 37 million adults in the U.S. have chronic kidney disease – that’s a staggering 1 in 7 U.S. adults – and out of all those people, approximately 90% of them don’t know they have chronic kidney disease.1 The disease hampers the kidney’s primary function of filtering fluid and waste from the bloodstream. Kidney disease progressively limits kidney function before ultimately reaching end-stage kidney disease (EKSD), which requires a kidney transplant or dialysis treatment.
Hemodialysis is the leading treatment option for ESKD patients. This treatment involves connecting a patient to a machine that removes the blood out of their body through a catheter or arterio-venous (AV) fistula, cleans the blood (which the patient’s body can no longer do), and returns the filtered blood to the body. Dialysis is a life-saving process that is essential to all ages of ESKD patients; however, up until now treatment of pediatric patients has been a challenge due to a lack of products designed and sized to help in this younger patient population.
BD Peripheral Intervention in Tempe is the world leader in delivering medical technologies for kidney hemodialysis access. In 2020, with the help of physicians focused on pediatric dialysis care, the GlidePath™ 7.5F and GlidePath™ 10F Long-Term Hemodialysis Catheters specifically engineered to address the needs of these pediatric patients were launched. In the U.S. there are approximately 10,000 pediatric patients with ESKD.2
“Pediatric kidney disease patients are a notoriously underserved group when it comes to medical device innovation. I’m proud of our team’s collaboration to create and now offer the GlidePath™ Catheters appropriately sized to support this patient population, giving patients and their physicians more options to support hemodialysis access needs.” – Padraic O’Brien, Worldwide President BD Peripheral Intervention
Beyond developing device technologies, BD also partners with the National Kidney Foundation of Arizona to support their mission, help raise awareness and offer information on disease management. One of the activities that BD supports and BD associates enthusiastically participte in is the National Kidney Foundation’s Camp Kidney in Arizona, which offers children experiencing kidney disease an opportunity to engage in classic summer camp activities, at a medically-equipped facility. “Without the partnership and support of BD, we could not offer the magic of camp to these amazing but medically challenged kids. At Camp Kidney, for one weekend, being sick takes a backseat and being a kid is priority number one. We are incredible thankful and look forward to many future years of Camp Kidney.” – Ashleigh Schufeldt, National Kidney Foundation of Arizona Manager of Special Events & Camp Kidney Camp Director
1Center for Disease Control and Prevention, National Chronic Kidney Disease Fact Sheet 2019
2United States Renal Data System, 2018
The GlidePath™ 7.5F and GlidePath™ 10F long-term hemodialysis catheters are indicated for use in attaining short-term or long-term vascular access in pediatric, adolescent and adult patients for hemodialysis, hemoperfusion or apheresis as determined by the prescribing physician. Access is attained via the internal jugular vein, subclavian vein, or femoral vein. This device is contraindicated for patients exhibiting severe, uncontrolled thrombocytopenia or coagulopathy.
© 2021 BD. BD, the BD logo, and GlidePath are trademarks of Becton, Dickinson and Company or its affiliates. Illustrations by Mike Austin. All Rights Reserved. BD-28518
