Historical Background As of 2007, 527,000 patients received treatment for end-stage renal disease in the United States. During this same year, approximately 1500 access interventions were performed per 1000 patients. With the exception of dialysis itself, the most commonly performed…
Historical Background The steal phenomenon was first described in 1969 by Storey and associates after creation of a Brescia-Cimino-Appel autogenous access. Steal can be a potentially limb-threatening event and must be promptly evaluated and treated if clinically significant. The goals…
Historical Background Despite the success of the Brescia-Cimino type subcutaneous arteriovenous fistula in 1962, the absence of suitable forearm vessels in many patients led to the evaluation of alternative conduits. In 1969 May and colleagues described the creation of a…
Historical Background In 1976 Dagher and colleagues reported a series of 23 upper arm basilic vein transpositions for hemodialysis. The procedure did not achieve widespread acceptance until after the first National Kidney Foundation’s Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) guidelines…
Historical Background Kolff’s development of hemodialysis in the 1930s led to a series of advances in the care of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD). Although native arteriovenous fistulas and homografts were initial cannulation options for dialysis access, the availability…
Historical Background Although Kolff and colleagues reported the development of a hemodialysis machine for renal replacement therapy in 1944, maintenance hemodialysis did not become a reality for another 2 decades because of a lack of reliable vascular access. Simple venipuncture…
Historical Background Sclerotherapy is the chemical ablation of abnormal veins. The modern goal of therapy is an irreversible fibrotic occlusion, followed by reabsorption of the target vessel. Sclerotherapy is an old technique revolutionized by recent technological advances. Elsholz performed the…
Historical Background In 1968 Kistner was the first to describe direct surgical repair of incompetent deep venous valves. Indirect valve repair was first popularized in the early 1980s after report of the axillary vein transfer technique, which was followed by…
Historical Background Venous valve anatomy was first described in the 1500s, but with the exception of compression wraps, treatment for chronic venous disease (CVD) was not considered until several centuries later. Trendelenburg described saphenous vein ligation in 1891 as a…
Historical Background By the 1890s Trendelenburg not only had developed the compression test to evaluate saphenous vein reflux but also had performed great saphenous vein ligations using a transverse upper thigh incision, thus establishing the foundation for surgical treatment of…