The arteriovenous fistula (AVF) is the most common type of vascular access currently used for hemodialysis, but long-term outcomes remain poor in many patients; understanding the basic mechanisms of venous remodeling within the fistula environment is critical to improve our understanding of AVF maturation. In this chapter, we describe a method to create a murine aortocaval fistula that allows intraluminal drug delivery. This model reliably recapitulates human AVF maturation and therefore is a good consideration to study venous remodeling.
Keywords: Animal model; Aortocaval fistula; Arteriovenous fistula; Fistula maturation; Hemodialysis access; Intraluminal drug delivery.