Courtesy of The Times of Northwest Indiana • November 22, 2019
Joseph S. Pete joseph.pete@nwi.com, 219-933-3316
Methodists Hospitals is the first hospital in Northwest Indiana to invest in a new technology that creates endovascular AV fistulas for chronic kidney disease patients who require hemodialysis.
BD or Becton, Dickinson and Company, a global medical technology company, developed the WavelinQ 4F EndoAVF System. It creates fistulas in either the ulnar artery and ulnar vein or the radial artery and radial vein to help treat the more than 440,000 patients with End-Stage Renal Disease in the United States who survive on hemodialysis.
It’s intended to be a minimally invasion alternative to open surgery that reduces the risk of scarring or arm disfigurement.
“With WavelinQ 4F EndoAVF, I can provide my ESRD patients with two additional fistula location options compared to a surgical fistula,” said Dr. Paul Kreienberg of the Albany Medical Center. “These additional AV fistula sites and a minimally invasive procedure can increase the likelihood that patients will get a usable AV fistula.”
Hemodialysis treatments, often achieved with AV fistula, sustains life for patients whose kidneys no longer keep up with the body’s need to remove extra waste and water.
“People living with ESRD are an underserved patient population with very limited treatment options available to them,” said Steve Williamson, worldwide president of Peripheral Intervention at BD. “We’re excited to add WavelinQ 4F EndoAVF System to our portfolio of technologies that create, restore and/or maintain AV access for patients on hemodialysis. Endovascular specialists now have an additional tool that enables the flexibility needed to support AV fistula creation for their patients.”
