Surgery versus Interventional Radiology in the Management of Thrombosed Vascular Access for Hemodialysis

Thrombosis is the most frequent complication occurring in vascular access (VA). The two widely used treatment strategies for thrombosed VA are surgical and endovascular. Which is the best and whether different approaches should be used on proximal versus distal VA, is still debated. This is a retrospective study. Over a three years period, we studied among a population of 475 dialysis patients, 54 VA thromboses in 46 patients. Surgical procedure was successful in 14/17 (82%) distal artero-venous fistulas (AVF) while, in 9 proximal AVF, it led to initial success in 6 patients (66%), with a six months primary patency respectively of 93% and 84%. Radiological procedure resolved 6/10 distal AVF (initial success 60%) with primary patency of 66%, and was successful in 16/18 proximal AVF (initial success 89%) with primary patency of 81%. Taking our data all together, no differences are found between two thrombolitic (surgical and endovascular) procedures. But results were different in thrombosed proximal VA (where endovascular treatment should be preferred) versus distal ones (where surgery seems better).