Vascular access grafts are used to treat patients suffering from End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) who are scheduled to undergo hemodialysis treatment.
End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) refers to complete kidney failure when the kidneys fail to detoxify more than 20% of excess water and waste from the body. In the U.S. alone, more than 450,000 people are undergoing treatment for the disease. By 2020 the incidence of ESRD is projected to rise to about 150,000 new cases annually for a total of 785,000 patients .
Vascular access grafts are implanted in the forearm or upper arm (depending on the patient’s physiology). One end is sutured to an artery and the other end to a vein. The graft can then be punctured repeatedly for dialysis access rather than puncturing native blood vessels.
While the National Kidney Foundation’s (NFK) recommended treatment method for vascular access is via an arteriovenous fistula . An arteriovenous fistula is created by surgically connecting a vein to an artery. There is growing evidence that the expected advantages of this method over arteriovenous graft access are not occurring .
The growing realization that fistula outcomes are unsatisfactory is expected to result in an increase in the use of AV access grafts for patients suffering from kidney failure.