Use of chronically occluded fistula to establish access outflow

Abstract

Maintaining a good quality vascular access in the long term can become particularly challenging especially in patients that are on dialysis for many years and present with exhausted venous capital and chronic access related complications. We present a 60-year-old female patient with multiple bilateral previous failed accesses, a previous distal revascularization interval ligation (DRIL) for hemodialysis access induced distal ischemia (HAIDI). Her chronically (more than a month) occluded arteriovenous fistula AVF was used to establish outflow and create a functioning forearm arteriovenous graft (AVG).