Castaneda Brush Synthetic hemodialysis access grafts, which serve as the entry site for dialysis needles in patients undergoing hemodialysis, regularly become clogged with blood clots.
Treatment generally requires surgery to open the graft and clean out the clot.
Of the 140,000 hemodialysis access graft treatments currently performed each year in the U.S., presently about one-third are treated interventionally while the remainder require surgical treatment. Interventional radiology has revolutionized the care of patients by providing less-invasive yet effective techniques for treatment of patients with a wide variety of medical and surgical problems. The interventional radiology research program is committed to improving the care of all patients, not only hemodialysis patients, but also those with peripheral vascular and renal vascular complications of atherosclerosis, cancer patients, and trauma patients with thromboembolic disease. One example of that is the involvement of our members in the laboratory concept development followed by clinical research resulting in a now accepted technique of dialysis graft recanalization.