Hemodialysis vascular access in children and adolescents: a ten-year retrospective cohort study.

INTRODUCTION The complications of vascular access have been the major cause of hospitalization among patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) on Haemodialysis (HD). Despite recommendations to decrease the use of central venous catheter (CVC) it still represents the main access for children and adolescents who start HD. OBJECTIVES AND METHODS This study aimed to evaluate, through a retrospective cohort study, the initial type, the incidence of complications and reasons for failure of vascular access in children and adolescents aged 0 to younger than 18 years who started HD from 1997 to 2007. RESULTS 251 accesses were studied in 61 patients, 97 arteriovenous fistula (AVF) and 154 temporary uncuffed CVC. 51% of study patients began HD with CVC. The mean age of patients at the start of HD was 12.5 years. The predominant underlying disease was glomerulonephritis (46%). The main cause of CVC removal was infection in 35%. The mean survival of the uncuffed CVC was 40 days. AVF primary failure was detected in 37.8% of the fistulas. Considering the patent fistulas, the main cause of failure was thrombosis (84%). Infection did not caused any loss of AVF. When comparing the two types of access we find a risk of infection 34 times higher in patients using CVC against AVF. CONCLUSION Infection was the major cause of CVC removal, and our results suggest that uncuffed CVC must be avoided for ESRD children and adolescents on HD and replaced by AVF or cuffed CVC, whenever it is feasible. Thrombosis was the main cause of AVF loss, urging the need of implementation of a program for early detection of access failure.