ARTERIOVENOUS FISTULA CARE

Objectives: To determine knowledge, attitude and practice regarding AV fistulacare in patients of end stage renal disease on hemodialysis. Study Design: Cross sectionalstudy. Setting: ESRD patients in Nephrology Department of Lahore General Hospital by usingself-designed questionnaire. Period: Six months from Jan 2017 to June 2017. Method: Thestudy included about 141(consecutive sampling) patients of chronic kidney disease using AVfistula for hemodialysis. Data was collected using self designed questionnaire. Data analysiswas done using SPSS version 22. Result: The most well- known precautionary measures to betaken for arteriovenous fistula care are to avoid taking blood pressure and intravenous line on thearm bearing AV fistula and to avoid trauma and weight lifting with that limb. The knowledge wasseen to be particularly deficient about the measures to be taken in case of swelling. The attitudetowards AV fistula care was observed to be positive, majority of our study population claimed tofollow maximum precautionary measures most of the time, but percentage of practicing doesnot coincide with that (85.1% vs.74.7% respectively). The least practiced measure is elevationof limb in case of swelling, observed by only 36.9% of our study population. Conclusion:Knowledge regarding fistula care was adequate about most of the precautionary measures,most of the participants showed positive attitude towards practicing precautionary measures forfistula care, but number of patients actually practicing these precautions is less than the numberof patients that have knowledge about them.