Two years experience with tunneled dialysis catheters in patients requiring haemodialysis

Objective: to look for survival rate and major reasons behind the failure of tunnelled dialysis catheters in patients on haemodialysis. methods: the retrospective study was conducted at the department of interventional radiology, shifa international hospital, islamabad, and comprised records of 100 consecutive subjects from a list of patients in whom tunnelled cuffed catheters were placed from february 2009 to january 2011 and were followed up for two years. data was collected on a proforma from the hospital database and medical records of patients. spss 19 was used for statistical analysis. results: of the total 122 catheters placed in 100 patients, 49(40.16%) were lost to follow-up. of the remaining 73(59.83%) catheters, 38(52%) had achieved their desired function, while 35(48%) failed to achieve the target duration. among the reasons of catheter failure, infection was the commonest at 13(37.14%) with infection rate of 0.24 per 1000 catheter days. according to kaplan meier analysis, catheter survival rates at 60, 90 and 180 days were 89%, 77% and 64% respectively. mean effective duration of catheter was 129±117 days. conclusion: tunnelled dialysis catheters can be safely used as vascular access till the maturation of fistula and may be an alternative to arterio-venous fistula or graft for long-term vascular access if indicated.