Greater frailty among patients receiving dialysis is associated with longer times to vascular access functional use, according to study findings published in the American Journal of Kidney Diseases.
The finding is from a study of 41,471 patients, of whom 33,212 underwent fistula creation and 8259 who had graft placement. The investigators ascertained frailty using the claims-based frailty indicator (CFI). Higher scores on the CFI indicate greater frailty.
Among patients receiving a fistula, 59% and 72.7% of those in the lowest frailty quartile were using their fistula within 6 and 12 months of creation, respectively, compared with 47.2% and 59.3% of those in the highest frailty quartile, Karen Woo, MD, PhD, of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and colleagues reported. In the graft placement group, 67.5% and 71.6% were using their graft within 6 and 12 months of creation, respectively, compared with 66.3% and 69.3% of those in the highest frailty quartile.
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“Frailty may be useful for informing clinical decision-making regarding choice of vascular access,” Karen Woo, MD, PhD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues stated.
Reference
Woo K, Gascue L, Norris K, Lin E. Patient frailty and functional use of hemodialysis vascular access: A retrospective study of the US Renal Data System. Am J Kidney Dis. doi:10.1053/j.ajkd.2021.10.011
