Background: The development of regional dialysis units and the expanding indications for dialysis has led to increased demand for vascular access surgery. Consequently, the provision and maintenance of access, and the management of related complications has created a considerable burden on vascular surgical units in hospitals providing renal replacement therapy (RRT).
Aims: The objectives of our study were to review our experience with a variety of vascular access modalities for haemodialysis and to quantify the associated surgical workload.
Methods: We reviewed our experience in a consecutive group of dialysis patients who had access surgery for RRT in a regional hospital setting.
Results: Between January 1995 and January 2000, 69 patients entered the long-term dialysis programme in the Mid-Western region (population = 320,000). Of the 158 procedures performed, 138 (87%) were for access creation, and 20 (13%) related to access revision procedures. Twenty patients (29%) developed a total of 30 access related complications. Vascular access procedures accounted for 10% of the vascular surgical workload (1598 procedures) in the five-year period.
Conclusion: Vascular access is an important part of the haemodialysis services and surgical expertise should be available at local level to cope with likely demand.