Improving dialysis for kidney patients

People with end-stage kidney disease require a kidney transplant but as there is a waiting list for suitable kidneys, they also need regular dialysis treatment.

Haemodialysis, where you are hooked up to a machine which flushes the excess fluid and toxins from your blood, it is the most common form of dialysis and one of the ways to receive it is via an AVF.

This is created by joining a small artery to a vein in the patient’s arm. It is less risky than inserting lines into bigger veins, reduces infection and is more popular amongst patients.

But nearly half of all AVF surgeries fail in the first year – and researchers want to investigate what causes them to fail.

The SONAR trail will use ultrasounds to scan patients, who have recently had the AVF surgery, over 10 weeks to find out more about how AVF grow and also to see if problems can be detected earlier, potentially reducing the failure rate and also the need for further surgery.