Hemodialysis Treatment by Means of a Cadaver Arterial Allograft

As is well-known, the survival time of arteriovenous fistulas, external and internal, is relatively short—an average of four to nine months. In some patients one reaches the stage when all the available vessels have been used and their fate is doomed since neither dialysis nor, for various reasons, kidney transplantation can be performed. In such cases the use of cadaver arterial allografts has been of help. The procedure is relatively easy and the graft can be very soon used for hemodialysis. It seems that the antigenic activity of such grafts is negligible. We present here our experience with four patients in whom six such grafts have been implanted. The longest graft survival so far has been 16 months; this implant is still functioning with no complications.