Prophylactic angioplasty reduces thrombosis in virgin ePTFE arteriovenous dialysis grafts with greater than 50% stenosis: subset analysis of a prospectively randomized study.

Purpose: To determine if prophylactic percutaneous transluminal balloon angioplasty (PTA) can extend patency in functioning virgin ePTFE arteriovenous hemodialysis grafts.

Materials And Methods: The results of a prospectively randomized study of 64 patients with greater than 50% stenosis of functioning ePTFE arteriovenous hemodialysis grafts who were blindly assigned to be treated with PTA (treatment group) or observed without treatment (control group) were subjected to statistical subset analysis. Within this group were 21 patients (virgins) who had never undergone surgery, PTA, or thrombolysis.

Cost efficacy of duplex surveillance and prophylactic angioplasty of arteriovenous ePTFE grafts.

Poor patency of arteriovenous ePTFE grafts remains a major clinical problem. Prophylactic balloon angioplasty of stenoses has been claimed to prolong graft patency and has been widely introduced into practice. In this manuscript we report the cost incurred in application of such a program involving graft surveillance and prophylactic angioplasty of ePTFE graft stenoses >50% diameter.

Central venous stenosis in the hemodialysis patient: incidence and efficacy of endovascular treatment.

Central venous stenosis occurs as a complication of central venous catheterization and significantly complicates delivery of dialysis through arteriovenous grafts in the ipsilateral upper limb. This report includes two separate studies. Functioning expanded polytetrafluorethylene grafts have been prospectively evaluated using duplex scanning and angiography performed in all patients with stenoses > 50%.

Prophylactic balloon angioplasty fails to prolong the patency of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene arteriovenous grafts: results of a prospective randomized study.

Purpose: Maintenance of hemodialysis access grafts represents an enormous social and clinical problem. Current grafts and graft salvage techniques are inadequate. Consequently, there has been increasing interest in the use of minimally invasive catheter techniques to prophylactically treat stenoses in functioning arteriovenous grafts.

Hemodialysis access graft stenosis: percutaneous transluminal angioplasty.

Maintenance of dialysis access continues to plague care of the patient with ESRD. Because of the poor outcomes from surgical revision, there is increasing interest in balloon angioplasty as a technique for dilating stenoses in the functioning, but compromised graft. Forty patients treated with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA), without subsequent intervention, for graft dysfunction were retrospectively studied.