artificial kidney

Meanings

1. A dialysis machine, an external device that cleans the blood of people with kidney failure; from the 1940s to the 2000s, not portable, but wearable versions now exist.
2. An implantable bionic device to replace the function of a natural kidney, long dreamed of but not yet feasible.
3. A bioengineered (laboratory-grown) biologic kidney (from cultured cells), still experimental.