Background: In 2002, Oakes et al described a novel procedure designed to salvage the distal cephalic venous outflow of a Brescia-Cimino fistula by placing a prosthetic graft between the brachial artery in the antecubital space and the cephalic vein at the wrist. In this fashion, the more proximal veins were saved for future procedures. Their approach was reported and found to be successful in the short term, but the long-term durability of the Oakes procedure has not been described. This study aimed to determine the long-term primary, primary-assisted, and secondary patency rates of the brachial to distal cephalic vein Oakes procedure.
Methods: This is a retrospective review of a prospective database in a large, single institution. All patients who underwent the Oakes procedure from 1998 to 2012 were followed up to 2018. We reviewed the time to intervention, type of intervention, patency rates, and mortality of this patient population.
Results: Over the 5-year study period, 14 patients were identified who underwent the Oakes procedure, of whom seven (50%) were female. The average age was 55.7 years (range, 38-73 years). All patients had a previously placed Brescia-Cimino that was not suitable for dialysis but was patent. The average number of days to placement of an Oakes brachial to distal cephalic graft was 396 (range, 119-1167) days. A total of 71% (10) of patients underwent an intervention to maintain the graft, of whom 50% (5) underwent an angioplasty and 50% (5) had a thrombectomy/revision procedure. The average number of days to first intervention was 367.3 (range, 21-1048) days from Oakes placement. Of this cohort, 30% (3) of patients had a second intervention, of whom one (33%) underwent an angioplasty and two (66%) had revisions. One patient had a third and a fourth intervention at 39 days and 74 days, respectively, that were both angioplasties. The overall number of days the Oakes procedure remained usable from placement was 843.6 (range, 21-3790) days or 2.3 years.
Conclusions: This study concluded that the Oakes procedure may extend the use of the distal dialysis access site by 2.3 years without increasing infection and is hence a durable solution that should be considered in patients requiring dialysis access.
Keywords: Hemodialysis; Maturation of cephalic vein; Oakes procedure.
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