Maintenance of dialysis access continues to plague care of the patient with ESRD. Because of the poor outcomes from surgical revision, there is increasing interest in balloon angioplasty as a technique for dilating stenoses in the functioning, but compromised graft. Forty patients treated with percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA), without subsequent intervention, for graft dysfunction were retrospectively studied. Time to thrombosis of the graft was noted. Patency was determined using the Kaplan-Meier technique. Patency following PTA at 1, 6, and 12 months was 76, 27, and 10%. Patency following PTA of arteriovenous graft stenoses results in disappointing medium and long-term patency. Alternate strategies for improving patency of these conduits should be explored.
