Careful and safe vascular access creation

Thomas R Wyss1, Matthias K Widmer

  • 1Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Swiss Cardiovascular Center, Bern University Hospital, Bern, Switzerland.

Contributions to Nephrology
|February 14, 2015
PubMed

Morbidity and mortality are significant in hemodialysis patients, and every vascular access (VA) is prone to complications - some more, some less. The risk of complications rises from arteriovenous fistulae to arteriovenous grafts and peaks in nontunneled central lines. Strategies to achieve complete evaluation of the patient and precise planning mark the start of successful VA creation. Furthermore, preoperative considerations include safety checklists, team time-out procedures, and antibiotic prophylaxis. Intraoperative technical features and postoperative aspects of documentation and surveillance schemes complete careful and safe VA creation.