Italian doctors have designed a miniature dialysis apparatus for babies, which was used for the first time last year to save a newborn girl, the Fox News reported.

Usually, doctors adapt standard dialysis machines for babies, but that can be risky since the devices can't always be accurately tweaked. About 1 to 2 percent of hospitalized infants have kidney problems that may require dialysis, which cleans toxins from the blood when the kidneys aren't working.

The new mini-dialysis machine, meant for babies under 22 pounds, was conceived by Dr. Claudio Ronco of the San Bortolo Hospital in Vicenza, Italy and colleagues. Just weeks after the machine was licensed last summer by European authorities, they got their first patient: a 3-day-old baby girl weighing about 6.6 pounds with multiple organ failure.

"Her parents had already reserved the funeral," Ronco said. Instead, the baby was treated for nearly a month. She and her parents recently paid Ronco a visit.

Since then, about 10 other babies have been treated with the machine across Europe.