Abdominal Wall Grafts: A Viable Addition to Arteriovenous Access Strategies

We seek to present our experience with innovative abdominal wall arteriovenous access grafts for patients who have run out of traditional dialysis access options.

We retrospectively reviewed our cohort of patients who have undergone creation of abdominal wall grafts. In all patients, an iliac artery was used for inflow and either an iliac vein or the distal inferior vena cava (IVC) was use for the outflow. Ringed polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE), nonringed PTFE, and bovine carotid artery were used as access conduits.

Our 12-patient cohort had a mean primary patency of 17.4 months with mean secondary patency of 33 months. There were no operative deaths noted and 4 total graft infections.

Abdominal wall grafts with iliac vessel inflow and/or outflow represent viable alternatives for patients who have exhausted more traditional dialysis access options.