Scribner converted acute dialysis, a technique developed during World War II, into a chronic procedure by replacing the standard glass tubes that had been sewn into patients' arteries and veins to transport the patient's blood to and from the dialysis machine with a new material, Teflon tubing. The nonstick surface of the tubing drastically reduced clotting associated with the glass devices and thereby established the long-lasting vascular access that made sustained dialysis possible. "Suddenly, we took something that was 100 percent fatal and overnight turned it into 90 percent survival," Scribner later said.