The most common problem with haemodialysis arteriovenous fistulas (AVF) and arterio-venous grafts (AVG) is stenosis, which can lead to inadequate dialysis, and eventual access thrombosis. Conventional plain old balloon angioplasty is associate with high recurrence rates of stenosis and repeated interventions. The advent of successful drug-eluting technology in the treatment of the coronary vascular bed and subsequent positive accumulating evidence in the peripheral arterial circulation has prompted the use of drug coated balloons (DCB) in the access fistula circuit for venous stenosis and in-stent restenosis. Recent studies suggest that DCBs may significantly reduce re-intervention rates on native and recurrent lesions. The restenosis process is in part or in whole the result of neo-intimal hyperplasia (NIH) and NIH is considered the main culprit in access circuit target lesion stenosis. NIH is the blood vessel's healing response to the barotrauma from the angioplasty process. A critical component of NIH is the cellular proliferative stage with mononuclear leucocytes identified as the primary inflammatory cell type involved. The rationale for drug elution is to block the NIH response with an anti-metabolite such as paclitaxel. It is important to emphasize that the role of drug elution in the treatment of vascular stenosis is not to obtain a good haemodynamic and luminal result but to preserve a good result obtained during POBA from later restenosis due to NIH and minimise reinterventions and readmissions to hospital for what is a frail population of patients. A meta-analysis performed by Khawaja et al. seemed to suggest that DCBs conferred some benefit in terms of improving target lesion primary patency (TLPP) in AVFs. An updated meta-analysis performed by our own institution recently showed that DCB appears to be a better and safe alternative to conventional balloon angioplasty (CBA) in treating patients with HD stenosis based on 6- and 12-months primary patency and increased intervention free period. The Passeo-18 Lux (Biotronik Asia Pacific Pte Ltd (Singapore)) drug-coated balloon (DCB) is packaged with a low dose of paclitaxel. Recent studies have shown that low dose coating of paclitaxel with this DCB is useful for preventing restenosis, decrease lumen loss and target lesion revascularization in the peripheral vasculature6 but has not been tested in the dialysis access circuit.
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6-month Target Lesion Primary Patency
Timeframe: 6-month post-procedure