An establishment of vascular access through superior vena cava for a patient with multiple central venous stenosis or occlusion.

The patency of vascular access is of vital importance to dialysis patients. Access dysfunction is largely caused by vessel stenosis and thrombosis. Nephrologists usually find themselves helpless when all treatments fail and the vascular access seems to have exhausted. Here we report a successful establishment of vascular access through superior vena cava for a critical patient with multiple central venous stenosis or occlusion. To our knowledge, it is the first case ever reported on the successful establishment of vascular access through superior vena cava under such a complicated condition of vascular exhaustion.