Reply to: Can blood flow surveillance and pre-emptive repair of subclinical stenosis prolong the useful life of arteriovenous fistulae? A randomized controlled study (multiple letters)

In the September 2004 issue of Nephrology DialysisTransplantaion, Tessitore et al. [1] provide further evidencethat arteriovenous (AV) access blood flow surveillanceand pre-emptive repair of subclinical stenosis reduce thethrombosis rate and prolong the life of AV fistulae. In thisreport, 12 of the 43 patients with dysfunction of AV fistulaeproposed for treatment with percutaneous transluminalangioplasty (PTA) were considered not to be amenableto PTA by radiologists, and thus were surgical candidatesfor the following reasons: stenosis segment >2.5 cm, multipleperianastomotic stenoses and critical (>90%) isolatedperianastomotic stenosis.