The primary patency of drug-eluting balloon versus conventional balloon angioplasty in hemodialysis patients with arteriovenous fistula stenoses

Abstract

The aim of this article is to assess and compare the rate of primary patency achieved by drug-eluting balloon angioplasty (DEBA) and conventional balloon angioplasty (CBA) in hemodialysis arteriovenous fistula stenoses. This retrospective study consists of 52 patients with significant arteriovenous fistulas stenoses who were treated with DEBA (n=26) or CBA (n=26) between January 2013 and January 2015. Only those patients with postprocedural technical and clinical success of 100% were selected from the database. Primary patency rates of fistulas at 6 and 12months were evaluated with Doppler ultrasonography as well as clinically. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to compare the primary assisted patency rates for the two groups. The type of AVFs were 41 (78.8%) radiocephalic and 11 (21.2%) brachiocephalic. Primary patency rates between the DEBA and CBA group had a statistically significant difference at 12months (p<0.05). However there was no statistically significant difference at the 6-month follow-up period (p=0.449). There was no statistically significant difference among the patient age, patient gender and fistula type of the two groups (p>0.05). Drug-eluting balloon angioplasty proved to be an effective treatment of hemodialysis AVFs stenosis, with a high primary patency rate at 12months.