Complications associated with vascular accesses account for approximat
ely 30% of hospital admissions for chronic hemodialysis patients. Long
-term patency of access was evaluated in 76 patients, without diabetes
mellitus, who had been on dialysis for at least 3 years and 41 patien
ts, with diabetes mellitus, who had been on dialysis for over 2 years.
Fistulas functioned longer than grafts (58 vs. 22 months, p<0.01, in
nondiabetics and 70 vs 22 months, p<0.01, in patients with diabetes).
Declotting or revision of restored graft function for short periods of
time (<6-10 months) and subsequent declotting was ineffective. Infect
ions were uncommon in grafts (1 per 13.5 years of dialysis) and in fis
tulas (1 in 200 years of dialysis).