Ultrasound-guided percutaneous endovascular angioplasty in the treatment of arteriovenous graft stenosis: analysis of patency rate in 36 patients at a single center

ObjectiveTo investigate the effectiveness and feasibility of ultrasound-guided percutaneous transluminal angioplasty(PTA)in the treatment of arteriovenous graft(AVG)stenosis, and analyze the influencing factors of patency rate after PTA.

MethodsThe inner diameter of stenosis, hemodialysis blood flow, brachial artery blood flow changes in 36 maintenance hemodialysis patients with AVG stenosis before and after PTA were retrospectively analyzed, and the therapeutic effects were evaluated.The patency rate was detected every 3 months after surgery.

ResultsAll 36 patients were successfully operated.Before the treatment of PTA, the diameter of stenosis, AVG blood flow and brachial artery blood flow were(1.58±0.35)mm, (144.13±19.12)mL/min and(352.30±42.01)mL/min, respectively.After the treatment of PTA, the diameter of stenosis, AVG blood flow and brachial artery blood flow were(3.71±0.62)mm, (275.75±14.29)mL/min and(616.83±45.92)mL/min, respectively.The differences of the diameter of stenosis, AVG blood flow and brachial artery blood flow between before and after treatment were statistically significant(P < 0.01), and which indicated that the treatment was effective.The patients were followed up for 3, 6, 9 and 12 months, and the primary patency and secondary patency rates were 80.6%, 66.7%, 47.2% and 38.9%, and 88.9%, 75.0%, 69.4% and 58.3% at each time-point, respectively.There was no statistical significance at each follow-up time between primary patency rate and secondary patency rate(P>0.05).The age of patients with postoperative 1 year patency was lower than that of patients with postoperative 1 year non-patency(P < 0.01).

ConclusionsThe PTA guided by ultrasound is an effective method in the treatment of AVG stenosis, and the older the patient is, the lower the postoperative patency rate is.