Arterio-venous fistula for automated red blood cells exchange in patients with sickle cell disease: Complications and outcomes.

Erythrocytapheresis (ER) can improve outcome in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). A good vascular access is required but frequently it can be difficult to obtain for sickle cell patients. Arterio-venous fistulas (AVFs) have been suggested for ER in SCD supported by limited evidence. We report the largest cohort of ER performed with AVFs from three French SCD reference centers. Data of SCD patients undergoing ER with AVFs in the French SCD reference center were retrospectively collected. The inclusion criteria were: SS or Sß-Thalassemia and AVF surgery for ER. SCD-related complications, transfusion history, details about AVF surgical procedure, echocardiographic data before and after AVF, AVF-related surgical and hemodynamical complications were collected. Twenty-six patients (mean age 20.5 years, mean follow-up 68 months [11-279]) were included. Twenty-three patients (88.5%) required central vascular access before AVF. Fifteen AVFs (58%) were created on the forearm and 11 (42%) on the arm. Nineteen patients (73%) had stenotic, thrombotic or infectious AVF complications. A total of 0.36 stenosis per 1,000 AVF days, 0.37 thrombosis per 1,000 AVF days and 0.078 infections per 1.000 AVF days were observed. The mean AVF lifespan was 51 months [13-218]. One patient with severe pulmonary hypertension worsened after AVF creation and died. We report the first series of SCD patients with AVF for ER, demonstrating that AVFs could be considered as a potential vascular access for ER. Patients with increased risk for hemodynamic intolerance of AVFs must be carefully identified, so that alternative vascular accesses can be considered. Am. J. Hematol. 92:136-140, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Surgical techniques for haemodialysis access-induced distal ischaemia.

PURPOSE: Haemodialysis access-induced distal ischaemia (HAIDI) is a significant complication of vascular access creation, and has traditionally been difficult to manage without loss of access. Current treatment options include ligation, banding, distal revascularisation with interval ligation (DRIL), proximalisation of the arterial inflow (PAI) and revision using distal flow (RUDI). The purpose of this review was to evaluate the effectiveness of the different surgical techniques in the treatment of HAIDI. METHODS: Electronic databases were searched for studies assessing surgical techniques in the treatment of HAIDI in accordance with PRISMA. The primary outcome for the study was symptomatic relief for each technique, defined within each study. Secondary outcomes included comparison of early thrombosis rates following each different procedure. RESULTS: Following strict inclusion/exclusion criteria by two reviewers, twenty-seven studies of surgical interventions were included and divided into subgroups for banding, DRIL, PAI and RUDI procedures. Both DRIL and banding procedures were found to have high rates of symptomatic relief. In addition, the DRIL has a significantly lower rate of early thrombosis than banding although the more recent papers seem to suggest that early thrombosis is less of a problem in banding. PAI and RUDI showed some promise but there were too few studies to be able to make any clear conclusions. CONCLUSIONS: All four procedures have high success rate in relieving ischaemic symptoms with the DRIL procedure having a significantly better vascular access patency rate than other techniques, although further well designed studies are required to compare all four surgical techniques.

Low-flow maturation failure of distal accesses: Treatment by angioplasty of forearm arteries.

BACKGROUND: Forearm artery lesions are a frequent cause of distal fistula maturation failure. Surgical treatment is difficult because of highly calcified arteries. To redo the arteriovenous anastomosis higher up the forearm is technically difficult and often ineffective because arteries cannot be enlarged. It also causes a loss in puncture zone. Creation of brachial accesses leads to a high risk of distal ischemia. METHODS: From September 2000 to September 2006, we performed percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) of forearm arteries in 25 patients with failing distal access maturation. We reported immediate results of the dilatation and retrospectively analyzed the outcome of the accesses after the procedure. RESULTS: Forearm artery PTA was achieved in all 25 patients. Three main complications occurred: severe spasms precluding precise assessment of the artery patency after dilatation, rupture easily treated by prolonged low-pressure balloon inflation, and early rethrombosis leading to access loss. Follow-up was available in 23 patients. PTA failed to restore a sufficient access flow in two patients (the access loss and an insufficient increase in flow). In the remaining 21 (91%), accesses started to be used for hemodialysis without difficulties. Primary patency access rates after PTA were 83% (range, 60%-93%) at 1 year and 74% (range, 47%-89%) at 2 years. Secondary access patency rates were 86% (range, 64%-95%) at 1 and 3 years. CONCLUSION: When a distal access fails to mature because of forearm artery lesions, PTA should be done and will salvage the fistula without risk of distal ischemia and cardiac failure. Efficacy of PTA clearly influences surgical strategy and is a major argument in favor of attempting to create distal accesses in patients with mild distal artery lesions. Even in cases of failure, such as early occlusion of the fistula, this technique does not jeopardize further proximal access creation. Forearm access creation should be avoided only in cases of extremely severe distal artery lesions.