Evidence map›Paper›PMID 23813216›Full record

ArticleJournal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN2013

Fistula first is not always the best strategy for the elderly.

Ranil N DeSilva, Bhanu K Patibandla, Yael Vin, Akshita Narra, Varun Chawla, Robert S Brown, Alexander S Goldfarb-Rumyantzev

Registry-linked trialAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of the American Society of Nephrology : JASN, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03545113 (A Randomized Pilot Study Comparing Graft-first to Fistula-first Strategies in Older Patients With Incident End-stage Kidney Disease), which is not on this map. Cited by 63 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
63citing papers in PubMed, 3 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT03545113 nacompletednot on this mapstarted 2018, after this paper: background citation

A Randomized Pilot Study Comparing Graft-first to Fistula-first Strategies in Older Patients With Incident End-stage Kidney Disease

TypeinterventionalSponsorWake Forest University Health SciencesRan2018 to 2021Enrolled44ConditionsKidney DiseasesArmsUpper arm arteriovenous graft surgery, Upper arm arteriovenous fistula surgery
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

63 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Guideline
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Evaluation and comparison of patency rate and complications of synthetic arteriovenous grafts in the groin and upper extremities among hemodialysis patients.Journal of research in medical sciences : the official journal of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences · 2026
    Article
  7. Review
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Shared decision making in elderly patients with kidney failure.Nephrology, dialysis, transplantation : official publication of the European Dialysis and Transplant Association - European Renal Association · 2024
    Review
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2023
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Review
  18. Review
  19. Influence of Tunneled Hemodialysis-Catheters on Inflammation and Mortality in Dialyzed Patients.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021
    Article
  20. Observational

3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Ranil N DeSilvaDivision of Nephrology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA. ranilx@yahoo.com
Bhanu K Patibandla
Yael Vin
Akshita Narra
Varun Chawla
Robert S Brown
Alexander S Goldfarb-Rumyantzev

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Whether placing a fistula first is the superior predialysis approach among octogenarians is unknown. We analyzed data from a cohort of 115,425 incident hemodialysis patients ≥67 years old derived from the US Renal Data System with linked Medicare claims, which allowed us to identify the first predialysis vascular access placed rather than the first access used. We used proportional hazard models to evaluate all-cause mortality outcomes based on first vascular access placed, considering the fistula group as the reference. In the study population, 21,436 patients had fistulas as the first predialysis access placed, 3472 had grafts, and 90,517 had catheters. Those patients with a catheter as the first predialysis access placed had significantly inferior survival compared with those patients with a fistula (HR=1.77; 95% CI=1.73 to 1.81; P<0.001). However, we did not detect a significant mortality difference between those patients with a graft as the first access placed and those patients with a fistula (HR=1.05; 95% CI=1.00 to 1.11; P=0.06). Analyzing mortality stratified by age groups, grafts as the first predialysis access placed had inferior mortality outcomes compared with fistulas for the 67 to ≤79-years age group (HR=1.10; 95% CI=1.02 to 1.17; P=0.007), but differences between these groups were not statistically significant for the 80 to ≤89- and the >90-years age groups. In conclusion, fistula first does not seem to be clearly superior to graft placement first in the elderly, because each strategy associates with similar mortality outcomes in octogenarians and nonagenarians.

Indexed as

Arteriovenous Shunt, SurgicalRenal DialysisAgedAged, 80 and overFemaleHumansKidney Failure, ChronicMaleMedicareProportional Hazards ModelsSurvival AnalysisUnited States

Identifiers

PMID23813216
PMCPMC3736704

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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.