Causes of Failed Internal Arteriovenous Fistula and Their Salvage Procedures

ABSTRACT

Adequate vascular access is essential for hemodialysis and Cimino type arteriovenous fistula is the solution for this purpose. But even after we made that fistula, we faced with early fistula failure in about 5~15% of these internal fistula and about 10% drop of fistula patency during the follow up each year. In order to select adequate salvage procedures after fistula failure, we analyzed the causes of failure and compared the result of salvage procedures performed in 423 re-arteriovenous fistula cases which were done between March 1983 through February 1996 in the Department of Surgery Dongsan Hospital, Keimyung University. In early failure cases, poor arterial flow(51.4%) and missed proximal obstruction of fistulated vein before fistula creation(20.9%) were two most common causes of failure but in late failure, stricture and thrombosis were leading causes(81.4%). In the case of repeated arteriovenous fistula, usage of proximal artery showed less early failure rate(5.6%) than opposite radial or ulnar artery(14.8%). This is especially true in patient with diabetes, collagen disease or obesity. Both repeat arteriovenous fistula and salvage procedure showed more early fistula rate and less mean patency compare with primary fistula. Among the salvage procedures of late onset fistula failure, patch graft and bridge graft showed less failure rate(7.1% and 8.3% each) compared with balloon angioplasty(60.0%) or thrombectomy(25.0%). Thrombosis or occlusion at around the fistula site can be managed by performing new fistula using the arterized vein and artery 1~2 cm proximal to the previous fistula. In summary, salvage procedure in the failed arteriovenous fiatula should be chosen according to their failure causes and onset time.