Prolonged catheter survival in intermittent hemodialysis using a less thrombogenic micropatterned polymer...

Adequate vascular access is a major prerequisite for hemodialysis treatment. Catheter related complications, in particular thrombus formation, are frequent, difficult to handle, and cost intensive. We investigated whether a new surface modified catheter containing a microdomain structure is beneficial for catheter survival. Surface thrombogenicity of standard double lumen catheters (STD-DC) and surface modified film-coated domain structured double lumen catheters (FCDS-DC) consisting of a novel reactive polyurethane copolymer coating was assessed by measurement of thrombinantithrombin (TAT) III complex in vitro. Furthermore, in a randomized observational study with 20 patients on hemodialysis, we analyzed catheter survival of either STD-DC (GamCath GDK 11 French, length 12.5 or 15 cm) or FCDS-DC (GamCath Dolphin GDK 11 French, length 12.5 or 15 cm). Catheter care protocol was identical, and dialysis treatment parameters were kept constant in both groups. In vitro measured surface thrombogenicity was reduced in the modified catheter compared with standard catheter. The clinical investigation revealed that both number of days before catheter removal according to clinical requirements and number of treatments per catheter were significantly higher with the modified catheter as compared with the standard catheter (14.5 vs. 10.3 days; 7 vs. 4 treatments; p < 0.03, Fisher-Yates test). Micropatterned surface coating with a polyurethane polymer significantly increased catheter survival and the number of treatments per catheter.