From basic biology to randomized clinical trial: the Beta Radiation for Arteriovenous Graft Outflow Stenosis (BRAVO II).

The BRAVO-II study was a randomized controlled study of endovascular radiation therapy as compared to sham radiation therapy, following angioplasty of a thrombosed PRFE graft. The results did not show a benefit of endovascular radiation therapy, albeit in the context of an early termination of the study at less than 50% enrollment due to business reasons. Emphasis is laid on the fact that there may still be a role for radiation therapy in specific clinical settings associated with dialysis vascular access dysfunction.

Aggressive treatment of early fistula failure.

Background: Fistula failure has been classified as early and late. Early failure refers to those cases in which the arteriovenous (AV) fistula never develops to the point that it can be used or fails within the first 3 months of usage. It has been common practice to abandon these early failures; however, aggressive evaluation and treatment of early fistula failures has been shown to result in the salvage of a large percentage.