Use of Plastic Needles for Early Arteriovenous Fistula Cannulation

The native arteriovenous fistula (AVF) needs maturation before it can be used. Needling done before time may result in haematoma formation, miscannulation or even access loss.This retrospective study included 20 patients with AVFs punctured with fluoroplastic dialysis catheters within 30 days after access creation and 19 historical controls.The time to first puncture was 2-29 days for the study group and 1-26 days for the control group. The incidences of haematoma were 16.7 and 48 per 1,000 dialysis sessions for plastic and metal needles, respectively. Estimated primary functional fistula survival at 3, 6 and 12 months were 95, 90 and 74% for the study group and 79, 67 and 60% for the control group (p = 0.106), respectively.Use of plastic needles enables safe AVF cannulation. If applied judiciously, it can minimize or even avoid catheter use.