Network meta-analysis of trials comparing first line endovascular treatments for arteriovenous fistula stenosis.

OBJECTIVE

We investigated the comparative effectiveness of different endovascular treatments for patients with failing autogenous arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) with outflow vein stenosis.

METHODS

The Medline (via PubMed) and SCOPUS databases were searched. We performed a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that had investigated the effectiveness of plain balloon angioplasty (PBA), cutting balloon angioplasty, and drug-coated balloon angioplasty (DCBA) to treat vein stenoses in autogenous AVFs. Studies of central vein stenosis were excluded. The main outcome measures were the failure rates at 6 months and 1 year after treatment.

RESULTS

Eleven randomized controlled trials were included, with 814 patients, 395 of whom had undergone PBA. The network meta-analysis showed that DCBA at 6 months was significantly more effective than PBA (odds ratio, 0.39; 95% confidence interval, 0.18-0.81) and ranked as the best treatment option, although the difference was not statistically significant compared with cutting balloon angioplasty (odds ratio, 0.65; 95% confidence interval, 0.20-2.12). The differences among the three treatments at 1 year were not statistically significant. Additional conventional pairwise meta-analyses did not find significant differences at 1 year.

CONCLUSIONS

In failing AVFs with outflow stenosis, DCBA was significantly superior to PBA, with improved 6-month failure rates. However the effectiveness of DCBA in the long term deserves further investigation.