title: Two years experience with tunneled dialysis catheters in patients requiring haemodialysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To look for survival rate and major reasons behind the failure of tunnelled dialysis catheters in patients on haemodialysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  The retrospective study was conducted at the Department of Interventional Radiology, Shifa International Hospital, Islamabad, and comprised records of 100 consecutive subjects from a list of patients in whom tunnelled cuffed catheters were placed from February 2009 to January 2011 and were followed up for two years. Data was collected on a proforma from the hospital database and medical records of patients. SPSS 19 was used for statistical analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the total 122 catheters placed in 100 patients, 49 (40.16%) were lost to follow-up. Of the remaining 73 (59.83%) catheters, 38 (52%) had achieved their desired function, while 35 (48%) failed to achieve the target duration. Among the reasons of catheter failure, infection was the commonest at 13 (37.14%) with infection rate of 0.24 per 1000 catheter days. According to Kaplan Meier analysis, catheter survival rates at 60, 90 and 180 days were 89%, 77% and 64% respectively. Mean effective duration of catheter was 129 +/- 117 days.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Tunnelled dialysis catheters can be safely used as vascular access till the maturation of fistula and may be an alternative to Arterio-Venous Fistula or graft for long-term vascular access if indicated.
authors.forename: Abdur
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Raheem
authors.forename: Atif Iqbal
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Rana
authors.forename: Syed Nayer
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Mehmood
authors.forename: Mubashir
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramzan
authors.forename: Rustam Alam
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Shah
authors.forename: Sajida
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Naseem
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D057785:Catheters; D004867:Equipment Design; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011475:Prosthesis Failure; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D062666:Vascular Access Devices; D055815:Young Adult