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Multidisciplinary team for dialysis shunts care

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    Data Source:Division of Radiotherapy       

    Multidisciplinary team for dialysis shunts care

    Currently , the number of hemodialysis patients is about 50,000 in Taiwan and around 8,000 people increase annually. The incidence rate and prevalence rate of hemodialysis patients in Taiwan rank the highest in the world, and especially in Southern Taiwan. In order to maintain a quality of life, most patients undergo hemodialysis three times a week, and in the case of long-term hemodialysis, dysfunction of hemodialysis access, including AV artificial graft or AV artificial fistula, often occurs. The section of interventional radiology of Kaohsiung Veterans General Hospital, coupling with nephrologists, cardiologists and vascular surgeons, has formed a teamwork to care hemodialysis patients since 1995, and the service volume is around 700-800 patients per year. Our team is the first to use endovascular skills to treat dysfunctional hemodialysis access in Taiwan. In terms of AV artificial graft or AV artificial fistula, the overall success rate of the procedure reaches nearly 99%, and the rate of repeated endovascular procedures within 1 month is about 5%, which are comparable to the literature reports from first-level medical institutions. In order not to give up any hemodialysis AV access, we hope that through the endovascular treatment the life-span of every AV access could be extended longer as much as possible.

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