Assessment of frequency of complications of arterio venous fistula in patients on dialysis: a two-year single center study from Iran.

The arterio-venous fistula (AVF) remains the ideal vascular access for patients on maintenance hemodialysis (HD). The aim of this study was to evaluate the complications associated with AVF and was conducted at the Ekbatan Hospital dialysis center in the years 2006 and 2007. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 90 patients with AVF were enrolled. For each patient, data related to age, gender, time of AVF surgery, duration of renal failure, duration on dialysis, number of fistulas and their sites and, data related to complications of AVF were entered in a check list and analyzed with SPSS software (version :11). Majority of the study patients were in the age-group of 41-60 years and there was a male preponderance (56.7%). The mean duration from the time AVF surgery was performed was 26 +/- 29.8 months, the mean duration of ESRD was 48.1 +/- 45.52 months and the mean duration on dialysis was 28.6 +/- 30.81 months. Most of the patients (75.6%) had undergone AVF surgery only once and in the majority (61.1%), the fistula was in the left arm. The most frequent complication seen in our patients was aneurysm (51%), followed by venous hyper-tension (16.7%), infection (4.4%), thrombosis (3.3%) and arterial steal syndrome (1.1%). Our study indicates that the prevalence of complications of AVF is high and greater attention should be paid to the prevention of these complications. Early diagnosis and appropriate treatment is essential to improve the quality of life in patients on HD.