Two years experience with tunneled dialysis catheters in patients requiring haemodialysis.

Objective: To look for survival rate and major reasons behind the failure of tunnelled dialysis catheters in patients on haemodialysis.

Methods: The retrospective study was conducted at the Department of Interventional Radiology, Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad, and comprised records of 100 consecutive subjects from a list of patients in whom tunnelled cuffed catheters were placed from February 2009 to January 2011 and were followed up for two years. Data was collected on a proforma from the hospital database and medical records of patients. SPSS 19 was used for statistical analysis.

Results: Of the total 122 catheters placed in 100 patients, 49 (40.16%) were lost to follow-up. Of the remaining 73 (59.83%) catheters, 38 (52%) had achieved their desired function, while 35 (48%) failed to achieve the target duration. Among the reasons of catheter failure, infection was the commonest at 13 (37.14%) with infection rate of 0.24 per 1000 catheter days. According to Kaplan Meier analysis, catheter survival rates at 60, 90 and 180 days were 89%, 77% and 64% respectively. Mean effective duration of catheter was 129 +/- 117 days.

Conclusion: Tunnelled dialysis catheters can be safely used as vascular access till the maturation of fistula and may be an alternative to Arterio-Venous Fistula or graft for long-term vascular access if indicated.