Hemodialysis reinitiation using a resurrected mummy fistula: a case report

BACKGROUND: Kidney allograft loss becomes an important cause of end-stage kidney disease and requires dialysis reinitiation. We report a case of a patient who restarted hemodialysis after his second kidney graft failure using a long-discarded autologous arteriovenous fistula. CASE PRESENTATION: A 62-year-old man was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease 20 year ago, and a native arteriovenous fistula was created for hemodialysis. After the patient received his first kidney transplantation, the hemodialysis fistula was discarded and chronically thrombosed for 13 years. When the patient experienced his second kidney graft loss and presented with uremia again, dialysis restart was needed. Under vascular ultrasound, but not x-ray, guidance, we successfully revascularized the patient’s chronically occluded, long-discarded arteriovenous fistula access and used it for hemodialysis. The resurrected fistula remained patent and clinically useable for hemodialysis up to 18 months. CONCLUSIONS: This report provides the feasibility of ultrasound-guided transluminal angioplasty for the treatment of a mummy hemodialysis fistula, which could be considered when managing patients who need dialysis reinitiation. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12882-018-1089-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.