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Vascular Access Surveillance: Time to End the Controversy
Author(s) -
Polkinghorne Kevan R.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
seminars in dialysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1525-139X
pISSN - 0894-0959
DOI - 10.1111/sdi.12096
Subject(s) - vascular access , medicine , premise , intensive care medicine , hemodialysis access , clinical practice , hemodialysis , surgery , family medicine , linguistics , philosophy
The establishment and maintenance of permanent vascular access for hemodialysis patients are important clinical problems. Vascular access surveillance, currently mandated by the CMS , refers to the task of identifying and correcting an underlying vascular access stenosis to prolong vascular access patency and survival. While this premise makes intuitive sense, this article discusses the underlying evidence to support it, outlining disparate conclusions of clinical practice guidelines and a recent commentary by experts in vascular access.