Year: 2014
Type: editorial
Abstract: 70% of patients who reach end stage renal disease (ESRD) utilize hemodialysis as their renal replacement modality [1].Thus, a sustainable and reliable vascular access is critical to deliver dialysis therapy to these patients.However, vascular access dysfunction remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the hemodialysis population.The estimated cost of treating vascular access dysfunction in the United States annually is approximately one billion dollars [2]. The primary reasons for vascular access dysfunction are the high proportion of arteriovenous fistulas (AVF) that fail to mature and frequent stenosis in arteriovenous grafts (AVG), resulting in prolonged dialysis catheter use [3][4][5].Currently, there are few, if any, effective therapies to treat vascular access dysfunction.This is in large part because of the poor understanding of the pathophysiology of vascular access dysfunction, particularly vessel remodeling and neointimal hyperplasia development.To expand the discussion of hemodialysis vascular access dysfunction, this issue of the The Open Urology and Nephrology Journal will focus on several important topics and issues in vascular biology as it relates to hemodialysis vascular access dysfunction.The topics have been carefully chosen to highlight important subjects in the biology of vascular access, which have not been extensively reviewed and addressed in the literature.
Author: Timmy Lee
Institutions: University of Alabama at Birmingham, UAB Medicine
Language: English
Subfield: Emergency Medical Services
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2011188428