Fish-Oil Supplements May Not Lower Failure Rate Of Hemodialysis Grafts.

HealthDay  (5/2, Preidt) reports, "Taking fish-oil supplements does not significantly lower the failure rate of grafts used for hemodialysis," according to a study  published in the May 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "The study included about 200 North American kidney-failure patients with a synthetic tube grafted between an artery and a vein, which provides access to the bloodstream for hemodialysis." Researchers randomized patients "to take fish-oil capsules or a placebo daily for one year, starting one week after the graft was created."

        "The percentage of patients who had a loss of native graft patency through one year -- the primary outcome -- was lower with fish oil than with placebo, although the difference was not significant (48% versus 62%, P=0.06)," MedPage Today  (5/2, Neale) reports. However, "the findings, which were originally reported at the American Society of Nephrology meeting last year, also showed advantages for fish oil on some secondary endpoints, including cardiovascular events and blood pressure." An accompanying editorial  "said that available data do not support an increase in the use of hemodialysis grafts combined with fish oil capsules and antiplatelet therapy."