Introduction: In keeping with established international guidelines our institute follows an “all-autogenous” approach with regard to hemodialysis access. Upper arm transposition fistulas can allow for access options when forearm autogenous options are not suitable. We evaluate our experience with a single staged brachio-basilic arteriovenous fistulas (BBAVF) to assess efficacy and patency. Meth...

This is the third in a series on coronary artery bypass which reviews three alternative arterial conduits. The radial artery has become the most widely used of the three and accumulating experience demonstrates better patency at 10 years versus saphenous vein. Drawbacks are a long incision on the forearm, the propensity for spasm and persistent sensory disturbance in about 10%. The first is ans...

Twenty-five consecutive patients with 68 independent (single distal anastomosis) saphenous vein aortocoronary and 12 internal mammary bypass grafts (27 to left anterior descending, 10 to diagonal, 23 to left circumflex, 20 to right coronary artery) entered a reader-blinded, prospective, standardized study to establish the accuracy of ultrafast (cine) cardiac computed tomography (CT) for determi...

Objectives. To present a series of ipsilateral axillary artery to axillary vein loop arm grafts as an alternative vascular access procedure for haemodialysis in patients with difficult access. Design. Retrospective case series. Methods. Patients who underwent an axillary loop arteriovenous graft from September 2009 to September 2012 were included. Preoperative venous imaging to exclude central ...

PURPOSE May-Thurner syndrome (MTS) is a rare clinical entity featuring venous obstruction of the left lower extremity. The aim of the present study was to report our experience with MTS and to evaluate the utility of treatment using endovascular techniques. MATERIALS AND METHODS We retrospectively analyzed data on 23 MTS patients (21 females, two males; mean age 44 ± 15 years). Eighteen patie...

Background— Radial artery (RA) aortocoronary bypass grafts anastomosed to a branch of the circumflex coronary artery have significantly better patency rates than saphenous vein (SV) grafts at 5 years, but the physiological characteristics and mechanisms involved are not clearly defined. We compared RA and SV graft vasomotor and flow responses to endothelium-dependent and -independent stimuli 5 ...

BACKGROUND To improve the longterm outcome after CABG, several strategies have been used using arterial conduits. Our 20 years experience with the right gastroepiploic artery (GEA) graft was evaluated. METHODS AND RESULTS In 1352 patients having CABG with the GEA graft, (1092 men, mean 63 years, 99% multivessel disease, and mean EF 0.51), internal thoracic artery, saphenous vein, and radial a...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study is to review our experience with using more than 2,000 RAs over the last seven years, and to assess the medium-term outcome in terms of morbidity and mortality. METHODS Between June 1994 and June 2001, a total of 2,024 RAs have been used in 1,613 patients. The mean duration of follow-up was 40.1 months and ranged from one to 88 months. We assessed the results ...

Aim was to assess the therapeutic value of portal vein stenting (PVS) combined with iodine-125 seed (125I seed) strand endovascular implantation followed by transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) for treating patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and portal vein tumor thrombus (PVTT). This was a retrospective study of 34 patients aged 29-81 years, diagnosed HCC with PVTT, and tr...

BACKGROUND Although ultrasonography before a vascular access (VA) operation has become popular in recent years, benchmarks for the diameter or blood flow of arteries or veins are not defined in Japan. The objective of the present study is to analyze the relationship between preoperative US findings and the patency rate of VA in Japanese hemodialysis patients. METHODS 139 patients with end sta...