Background: The major limitation of arteriovenous graft access is the high incidence of thrombotic occlusion. This study investigated the outcomes of our salvage strategy for thrombosed hemodialysis arteriovenous grafts (including surgical thrombectomy with balloon angioplasty) and evaluated the efficacy of intragraft curettage.
Methods: Salvage operations were performed for 290 thrombotic occluded arteriovenous grafts with clinical stenotic lesions from 2010 to 2018. Of these, 117 grafts received surgical thrombectomy and balloon angioplasty from 2010 to 2012 (group A), and 173 grafts received surgical thrombectomy and balloon angioplasty, with an additional salvage procedure using a curette and a graft thrombectomy catheter, from 2013 to 2018 (group B). Outcomes were described in terms of post-intervention primary patency and secondary patency rates.
Results: The post-intervention primary patency rates in groups A and B were 44.2% and 66.1% at 6 months and 23.0% and 38.3% at 12 months, respectively (p=0.003). The post-intervention secondary patency rates were 87.6% and 92.6% at 6 months and 79.7% and 85.0% at 12 months, respectively (p=0.623). Multivariate Cox regression analysis demonstrated that intragraft curettage was a positive predictor of post-intervention primary patency (hazard ratio, 0.700; 95% confidence interval, 0.519-0.943; p=0.019).
Conclusion: Surgical thrombectomy and balloon angioplasty showed acceptable outcomes concerning post-intervention primary and secondary patency rates. Additionally, intragraft curettage may offer better patency to salvage thrombotic occluded arteriovenous grafts with intragraft stenosis.
Keywords: Shunts; Surgical arteriovenous shunt; Thrombectomy; Vascular graft occlusion.