Table 4.
Vascular access used at the first dialysis session by extent of predialysis nephrology care among patients with previous vascular access surgery by type of vascular access at initiation of dialysis
| Type of Predialysis Vascular Access Creation | Predialysis Nephrology Care (n) | AVF | AVG | CVC | Unknown | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All | AVF-M | AVG-M | CVC Only | |||||
| AVG | 277 | 15.9 | 54.5 | 28.5 | 6.1 | 10.1 | 12.3 | 1.1 |
| Nephrology evaluation | ||||||||
| None or late (40) | 5.0 | 52.5 | 37.5 | 7.5 | 17.5 | 12.5 | 5.0 | |
| Intermediate (62) | 21.0 | 48.4 | 30.7 | 9.7 | 4.8 | 16.1 | 0 | |
| Early (175) | 16.6 | 57.1 | 25.7 | 4.6 | 10.3 | 10.9 | 0.6 | |
| AVF | 1381 | 47.7 | 3.9 | 46.0 | 33.2 | 1.0 | 11.8 | 2.3 |
| Nephrology evaluation | ||||||||
| None or late (179) | 30.7 | 1.1 | 65.4 | 47.5 | 1.7 | 16.2 | 2.8 | |
| Intermediate (213) | 44.6 | 3.3 | 51.7 | 37.6 | 1.4 | 12.7 | 0.5 | |
| Early (989) | 51.5 | 4.6 | 41.4 | 29.7 | 0.8 | 10.8 | 2.6 | |
Data are given as percentages unless otherwise specified. We excluded patients who initiated dialysis in 2004 and 2005, because information on vascular access use among dialysis patients was not collected before 2005. Time between the first evaluation by a nephrologist and the start of dialysis were categorized as none or late evaluation (0–≤4 months), intermediate evaluation (4–≤12 months), and early evaluation (12–24 months). CVC, central vein catheter; AVF-M, dialysis with central vein catheter with maturing arteriovenous fistula; AVG-M, dialysis with central vein catheter with healing arteriovenous graft.