Influence of cephalic vein dilation on arteriovenous fistula maturation in patients with small cephalic veins

A substantial limitation of dialysis fistulas is their high primary failure rate due to nonmaturation. Various studies have documented that patients with larger vein diameters exhibit reduced risks for nonmaturation. Nevertheless, some patients have small veins. Few studies have focused on patients with small veins. We hypothesize that sufficient venous dilation contributes to fistula maturation. Therefore, we studied the influence of cephalic vein dilation on fistula maturation in patients with small veins. Patients with small cephalic veins (diameter <2 mm) undergoing initial arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) operation were included. A total of 72 patients were enrolled in this study. A prospective study was performed, and the patients were followed for 6 weeks after surgery. Preoperative and postoperative duplex ultrasound mapping of veins was performed, and dilation of the cephalic vein was evaluated. The fistula maturation rate was 44.44%. Multivariate logistic regression analysis revealed a significant relationship between fistula maturation and preoperative cephalic vein dilation. Based on the results of ROC analysis, the fistula maturation rate in patients with vein dilation greater than or equal to the cut-off was 57.14% in the training data set and 54.55% in the testing data set. The independent influencing factors for fistula maturation were used to establish a combined index with logistic regression analysis. The fistula maturation rate in patients with combined indexes greater than or equal to the cut-off was 80.95% in the training data set and 77.78% in the testing data set. Our results demonstrated that preoperative venous dilation was associated with AVF maturation. For patients with small veins, venous distensibility needs to be carefully assessed before surgery, as it may be a better predictor of AVF maturation than venous diameter.