Introduction -The process of hemodialysis pumps the patient's blood against dialysate that may be generated by the dialysis machine or at a central location -Dialysis machines are essentially composed of pumps, monitors, and alarms that allow safe proportioning of dialysate -Knowledge of the components of a dialysate circuit are important for patient safety and care -It is important for each nephrologist to become familiar with his/her dialysis machine for patient safety -The blood circuit will not be reviewed here