Figure 3.

Primary outcome: risk of all-cause mortality for the use of central venous catheters versus fistulas or grafts and the use of arteriovenous grafts versus fistulas in people on hemodialysis; studies are ordered by weight. We pooled the estimates reported by Polkinghorne et al.³¹ for the comparison of catheters versus fistulas (three estimates) and catheters versus grafts (three estimates) according to the time spent on hemodialysis when patients were registered; we also pooled the estimates reported by Foley et al.³² for the comparison of catheters versus fistulas and catheters versus grafts (each with three estimates) according to whether the patient has a catheter only, a catheter with a maturing fistula, or a graft.