Although arterialovenous fistulae (AVF) is considered to be vital for chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients, but they may cause complications and problems. For instance they may fail soon after their creation. The most important cause of failure in these cases is intrafistula thrombus formation. Whereas anti-platelet drugs are not routinely used after fistulae creation, we conducted this stud...

PURPOSE To report a case of laser in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) that used the Intralase femtosecond laser 14 years after radial keratotomy (RK) for residual myopic astigmatism. METHODS A 39 year-old male patient had undergone a bilateral RK operation for myopic correction. The manifest refraction was -1.25 -3.00 x 175 D, with uncorrected visual acuity (UCVA) of 20/50 and best-corrected visua...

Uniform vascular access guidelines for elderly patients may be inappropriate because of the competing risk of death, high rate of arteriovenous fistula (AVF) maturation failure, and poor vascular access outcomes in this population. However, the outcomes in elderly patients with advanced CKD who receive permanent vascular access before dialysis initiation are unclear. We identified a large natio...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Guidelines promote early fistula creation to avoid central venous catheter use. This practice may lead to fistula creations in patients who never receive dialysis. The objective of this study was to estimate the risk of fistula nonuse with long-term follow-up. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS Administrative health data identified 1929 predialysis adults ...

A few weeks ago I was reflecting on the impact of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico when I received an e-mail asking me “to think and type some comments of my experiences post Katrina” as we were approaching the fifth anniversary of the worst natural or man-made disaster in the history of this country. It seems almost unreal to remember that event while evaluating another disaster, the worst ...

In rectal cancer surgery, creation of diverting stomas can potentially minimize the fatal outcomes of anastomotic leakage, although it may not substantially decrease its incidence [1, 2]. Several studies showing that a defunctioning stoma seems to be useful in preventing clinical anastomotic leakage and urgent reoperations in patients receiving a low anterior resection have been reported [1, 3]...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The arteriovenous fistula (AVF) is the preferred hemodialysis access, but AVF-failure rate is high, and complications from AVF placement are rarely reported. There is no clear consensus on predictors of AVF patency. This study determined AVF outcomes and patency predictors at Mayo Clinic Rochester following the Fistula First Initiative. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS,...