New Vascular Access Center Improves Care for Dialysis Patients

CINCINNATI—A new comprehensive Vascular Access Center opening today at the UC Health Surgical Hospital in West Chester will be helping specialists treat patients with hemodialysis vascular access problems.

Hemodialysis is a technique in which a machine filters wastes out of a patient’s blood once the kidney fails.

Prabir Roy-Chaudhury, MD, PhD, UC Health nephrologist and medical director of the new center, says the center will provide care for patients currently undergoing dialysis or those who are in need of dialysis treatment.

"There are currently about 400,000 hemodialysis patients in the United States who must use a catheter, fistula or graft for dialysis,” he says. "Unfortunately, a patients’ ‘lifeline’—or dialysis access—is often compromised because of stenosis, or narrowing of the veins. As a result, hemodialysis vascular access dysfunction is currently the Achilles’ heel of hemodialysis, resulting in a significant morbidity, at a cost of over $1 billion annually.”

The UC Health Vascular Access Center will provide a full range of vascular access services including catheter placement and removal, angioplasty and thrombectomy (surgical removal of a blood clot) of arteriovenous fistulae and grafts as well as vein mapping prior to access placement.

In addition, the center will provide training for nephrologists in these procedures and will complement ongoing basic science and clinical research programs on vascular access within the University of Cincinnati’s (UC) division of nephrology and hypertension.

"Our goal is to truly provide comprehensive vascular access care to our patients so that we can reduce the number of catheters—which often cause infections—and increase the number of functioning fistulas, the best form of dialysis access,” he says. "We believe that this will reduce hospital admissions and cost for our patients and also improve their quality of life”

Interventional services at the center will be provided by Davinder Wadehra, MD, also a UC Health nephrologist, and a team of trained professionals.

"The goal of this center is to provide prompt, professional, high-quality vascular access services to our patients and to do so with a caring touch,” Wadehra says.

Manoocher Soleimani, MD, director of UC’s division of nephrology and hypertension, agrees that this is a step in the right direction.

"This is just one of a number of initiatives in the division that focus on providing the Tristate region with the best possible health care opportunities and options for kidney disease,” he says. "We are very proud of the center and hope to make a large impact on patient care.”