Percutaneous treatment of thrombosis of occluded vascular access (VA) for haemodialysis (HD) has been an alternative to surgical and pharmacological treatments, but long term results are not well defined. The aim of our study was to analyse the long term results of percutaneous thrombectomy as a treatment of occluded VA for HD. We conducted a prospective study from june 1995 to april 1999, including 123 consecutive thrombectomies in 64 VA in patients submitted to our hospital because of recent thrombosis of VA for HD. We used two different techniques, hydrodynamic catheter thrombectomy (Hydrolyser) in the 42 first procedures (34.1%), and since october 1996 we used mechanical balloon thrombolysis in the remaining 81 patients (65.9%). Underlying stenoses were evaluated by angiography, and treated by angioplasty. After the procedure, intravenous heparin was administered for 24 hours. The VA were 28 Brescia-Cimino arteriovenous fistulae (30.4%) and 64 PTFE grafts (69.6%).
Patient characteristics: mean age: 63 +/- 15 years (18-84), previous VA: 3.3 +/- 2.5 (0-9). The mean follow-up was 10.5 +/- 8.6 months (3-35). Percutaneous thrombectomy was able to remove the clots in 120 instances (technical success: 97.5%). After the thrombectomy 15 patients (16.3%) were immediately referred to the surgeon to perform a new VA due to vascular lesions in which percutaneous treatment was not indicated. Thirteen cases (14.1%) showed early thrombosis (< 72 hours). During the follow-up, 27 cases developed thrombosis (30%) and 26 VA were still patent (28.3%). In 23% of perfusion lung scans and in 2 of the 5 angiographies performed after thrombectomy, subsegmentary or segmentary perfusion defects were detected, without clinical significance. There were no relevant undesirable effects related to the technique and no symptomatic pulmonary embolism. In summary, percutaneous thrombectomy, whether hydrodynamic or mechanical, has shown to be an efficacious treatment of VA thrombosis for HD, preserving the VA with satisfactory long-term results.