Multi-center experience of 164 consecutive Hemodialysis Reliable Outflow [HeRO] graft implants for hemodialysis treatment.

OBJECTIVE: To report a multi-center experience with the novel Hemodialysis Reliable Outflow (HeRO) vascular access graft. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four centers conducted a retrospective review of end stage renal disease patients who received the HeRO device from implant to last available follow-up. Data is available on 164 patients with an accumulated 2092.1 HeRO implant months. RESULTS: At 6 months, HeRO primary and secondary patency is 60% and 90.8%, respectively and at 12 months, 48.8% and 90.8%, respectively. At 24 months, HeRO had a primary patency of 42.9% and secondary patency was 86.7%. Interventions to maintain or re-establish patency have been required in 71.3% of patients (117/164) resulting in an intervention rate of 1.5/year. Access related infections have been reported in 4.3% patients resulting in a rate of 0.14/1000 implant days. CONCLUSIONS: In our experience the HeRO device has performed comparably to standard AVGs and has proven superior to TDCs in terms of patency, intervention, and infection rates when compared to the peer-reviewed literature. As an alternative to catheter dependence as a means for hemodialysis access, this graft could reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with TDCs and have a profound impact on the costs associated with catheter related infections and interventions.

Bile duct varices.

The diagnosis of biliary duct varices and portal vein occlusion should be considered when nodular or notched defects in the wall of the biliary duct system are shown by cholangiography or when pedunculated vascular structures in the bile ducts are seen at surgery. We present two cases of common hepatic and common bile duct varices due to portal vein occlusion.

Challenges of hemodialysis access for high risk patients: Impact of mesenteric vein bioprosthetic graft.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to compare in a prospective fashion the performance of a new bioprosthesis, the mesenteric vein bioprosthesis (MVB), in patients who have had multiple failed ePTFE grafts. Performance measures include primary patency rates, assisted-primary patency rates, secondary patency rates, complications, and the number of interventions required to maintain graft patency. STUDY: From October 1999 to February 2002, 276 hemodialysis access grafts were implanted in a multicenter study. Of those grafts, 74 were placed in patients with a prior history of 3 failed prosthetic grafts (mean = 3.5 grafts, range = 3-6 grafts). Fifty-nine grafts were constructed with MVB, and 15 grafts with ePTFE as a concomitant control. Mean follow-up was 11.5 months. In the MVB group, 79.7% were African-Americans, 61% were females, and 23.7% were hypercoagulable. Of the ePTFE group, 86.7% were African-Americans, 46.7% were female, and 13.2% were hypercoagulable. Results : Per Kaplan-Meier curves, the primary patency rate of the MVB group at 12 months was 33% vs the ePTFE group of 18% (p=0.120); the assisted-primary patency rates at 12 months were 45% MVB vs 18% ePTFE (p=0.011). The secondary patency rates at 12 and 24 months for the MVB group were 67% and 59%, respectively, vs 45% and 15% for the ePTFE group (p=0.006). During the follow-up time period, 80% of the ePTFE grafts were abandoned compared to 34% of the MVB group. Infection and thrombosis rates in the MVB group were lower than the ePTFE group. The infection rate for the MVB group requiring intervention was 0.07 events/graft year (gt/y) compared to 0.30 events/gt-y for ePTFE (p=0.04). A thrombosis rate of 0.69 events/gt-y occurred in the MVB group whereas 2.50 events/gt-y presented in the ePTFE group (p<0.01). CONCLUSION: In this study, high-risk patients (defined as those having multiple failed prosthetic grafts for hemodialysis) in whom the MVB conduit for hemoaccess was implanted, showed significant improvement in assisted-primary and secondary patency rates compared to the ePTFE cohort. The MVB group, however, did not have a statistically better primary patency rate compared to the ePTFE group. The MVB patient also had fewer thrombotic and infectious events and an overall reduction in the number of interventions while maintaining a permanent access site. This new bioprosthesis should be the conduit of choice in the complex group of patients as it offers assisted-primary and secondary patency rates similar to those commonly experienced by patients without a history of multiple graft failures.

Bovine artegraft arteriovenous fistulas for hemodialysis in one-hundred patients after "conventional" arteriovenous fistulas failed.

The use of the Bovine artegraft for creation of arteriovenous fistulas in the hemodialysis patients was first carried out in the midsummer of 1971. Since that time, there has been considerable material reported in the use of this substitute as an access for hemodialysis. In this article information gained from an ongoing study of the first 100 patients in chronic hemodialysis who had Bovine artegraft arteriovenous fistulas was reviewed. The indications for operation, the standard technique, the results, the complications, and the future plans for study of the physiology and hemodynamics of this type of fistula are described. The Bovine artegraft, AV fistula can be created successfully in a high percentage of patients, offers ease of needle placement, and effective dialysis with very little complication.

Risk stratification and outcomes of transluminal endografting for abdominal aortic aneurysm: 7-year experience and long-term follow-up.

PURPOSE: To determine early and late outcomes of transluminal endografting (TE) in patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), stratified by predicted risk of procedure-related mortality with conventional operation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted in consecutive risk-stratified AAA patients undergoing TE at a not-for-profit cardiovascular referral center from March 1994 through November 2000 with follow-up through February 2001. With use of conventional risk strata (0 = low, 1 = minimal, 2 = moderate, and 3 = high), predicted procedure-related mortalities were 0%-1% in stratum 0 (n = 40), 1%-3% in stratum 1 (n = 118), 3%-8% in stratum 2 (n = 116), and 8%-30% in stratum 3 (n = 31). Main outcome measures were: (i) TE procedural success, (ii) procedure-related mortality, (iii) major nonfatal complications, (iv) composite adverse outcome (ii + iii), (v) length of stay (LOS), (vi) freedom from AAA rupture, (vii) late survival, (viii) late complications, and (ix) endoleaks and their classification and management. RESULTS: Women were significantly less likely than men to qualify for and undergo endografting: 24 of 91 (26.4%) women underwent TE, compared to 281 of 684 (41.1%) men. Of 305 attempted TE procedures, 291 (95.4%) were successful, four (1.3%) were urgently converted to open repair, and 10 (3.3%) were aborted. Procedure-related mortalities occurred in eight cases (2.6%) overall and one of 40 (2.5%), one of 118 (0.8%), four of 116 (3.4%), and two of 31 (6.5%) cases for risk strata 0-3, respectively. Perioperative survivors were significantly younger than nonsurvivors (74.3 y +/- 9 vs 81.6 y +/- 5.1; P =.0087). Forty-six patients (15.1%) had major complications. Composite adverse outcome was worse for patients in stratum 3 than those in stratum 1 (P =.0296) and those in strata 0, 1, and 2 combined (P =.026). Procedure-related mortality declined with institutional experience, from 4% among the first 100 patients undergoing TE to 1% among the last 105. For strata 0-3, median LOS were 2, 3, 3, and 4 days, respectively. Seventy patients (22.9%) had 75 endoleaks, of which 30 necessitated additional procedures, 17 self-resolved, and 22 were untreated as of March 1, 2001. Five patients with endoleak died of unrelated causes. One late-onset type IA endoleak (26 mo) resulted in the only AAA rupture and death in the follow-up period among the 291 patients who underwent successful transluminal endograft implantation. Actuarial survival rates at 1 year after TE were 90.3% +/- 1.9% for the overall study group and 97.5% +/- 2.5%, 94% +/- 2.5%, 86.9% +/- 3.3%, and 81.3% +/- 7.7% for risk strata 0-3, respectively. At 5 years, overall actuarial survival was 69.6% +/- 6.1%. Thirty-eight late deaths were attributable to post-TE AAA rupture (n = 1), AAA rupture late after failed TE with no further treatment (n = 1), other cardiovascular disorders (n = 7), cancer (n = 15), other causes (n = 10), and unknown causes (n = 4). Late deaths occurred in risk strata 0-3 at the following rates: two of 40 (5%), 10 of 118 (8.5%), 16 of 116 (13.8%), and 10 of 31 (32.3%), respectively (stratum 0 vs stratum 3, P =.0017; stratum 1 vs stratum 3, P =.003). CONCLUSIONS: TE is safe and confers durable protection against AAA rupture in treated populations. Still, protection is not absolute in patients with endoleaks, because late AAA enlargement and even rupture can occur. Given current knowledge, technology, and practice, careful patient selection and close surveillance of patients after implantation of transluminal endografts is essential.