1960

Belding Scribner of University of Washington Medical School designed a permanent in-dwelling cannula and shunt that transformed dialysis from short-term to long-term treatment. The shunt allowed the patient to be connected to the dialysis machine over time without a new surgical procedure each time. Teflon, so inert chemically that the body did not reject it, was the critical material used in the in-dwelling cannula (Rothman, 149-150; Rothman II, 89).