Stenting Improves Treatment Access for Dialysis Patients.

Twelve-month results of the prospective, multicenter, randomized trial RENOVA show that dialysis sites can be successfully kept open using stent grafts. In the study, 270 dialysis patients treated for collapsed access sites at 28 US centers were randomized: 138 underwent stent grafts while the remaining 132 had balloon angioplasty. After 1 year, 2.5 times more patients in the stent graft group were able to continue to use their dialysis access grafts than those who were being treated by balloon angioplasty alone (without invasive interim procedures). The results were presented at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 38th Annual Scientific Meeting.