Table 1.

Arteriovenous access life cycle

Phase	Definition	Potential Problems	End Point
Creation	Patent AVF	Inadequate vascular anatomy	Meet definition of patent AV access
	Patent AVG	Patency failure
		Hand ischemia
Maturation	Physiologically mature AVF or mature AVG	Failure or maturation	Meet definition of physiologically mature AVF or mature AVG
		Hand ischemia
		Infection
Clinical use, initial	Clinically functional AVF or clinically functional AVG	Inability to cannulate AV access	Meet definition of clinically functional AVF or clinically functional AVG
		Inability of AV access to sustain blood flow adequate for dialysis
Clinical use, sustained	Repetitive, routine use of AV access for dialysis	Vascular stenosis	Sustained, uninterrupted use of AV access for dialysis
		Thrombosis	Lack of interference with patient’s quality of life
		Infection
		Aneurysm formation
		High blood flow
		Hand ischemia
		Poor patient quality of life
Dysfunctional	Management of AV-access dysfunction	Stenosis treatment failure	Restore uninterrupted use of AV access for dialysis
	Restore functionality of nonfunctional AV access	Recurrent stenosis	Minimize period of AV access dysfunction
		Recurrent thrombosis	Maximize use-life of AV access
		Loss of AV access	Minimize effect of AV-access dysfunction on patient’s quality of life
		Ischemic tissue loss

AVF, arteriovenous fistula; AV, arteriovenous; AVG, arteriovenous graft.