AVF CANNULATION: BUTTONHOLE TECHNIQUE SHOULD BE THE FIRST CHOICE IN NEEDLING NATIVE AV FISTULA - Essay Example

27). The commonly used and preferred site for this dialysis is the radial artery in the forehead of the cephalic vein that is often found in the upper arms. Entirely all veins are expected to mature to be suitable for cannulation; therefore, a mature vein is that which has the diameter that allows successful cannulation. A successfully created fistula often takes averagely six to eight weeks before it is used. However, the same fistula must not be used sooner than a month. During the healing and maturation period, the fistula must be examined or accessed for infection, thrombosis, vessel development, and flow or bruits (Wilcox, 2008: p.34). Dangers that may results from lack of these practices may be due to lack of experience in the side of the nurses and patients as well.

Therefore, the staff should be frequently train and audited to elevate their understanding of these requirements (Rajan, 2011: p. 66). Moreover, patients should be enlightened on the same requirements so that they can take or head for self health care services towards the same medical conditions. Additionally, nurses should be trained on the appropriate AVF placement sites to prevent causing serious medical or health malpractice or complications to the patients. Some of the complications that may occur during cannulation include weakening of the walls of the vessel due to repeated needle punctures that occurs in the same area or siteitis.

This situation is likely to predispose the formation of an aneurysm. If this condition is followed with, an inadequate holding of the punctured site especially after dialysis may lead to the formation of pseudo aneurysm. Cannulation Cannulation is a special skill learnt that improves the practice. Lack of appropriate cannulation skills can lead to destruction or damage of the AVF or the AVG. it should be noted that highly experienced staff to dialysis often have higher rate to access infiltrations, infections, and losses.

The cannulation is the insertion of two, but occasionally one large bore needle into the fistula vessel. Proper cannulation usually ensures a direct flow of the fistula is achieved. Additionally, this requires experienced nurse care staffs (Hoballah and Lumsden, 2012: p. 82). The placement of the needle in the venous is often dependent of the direction that blood flows. The needle is supposed to return the blood to the vasculature from the extracorporeal and it must ever point to the venous return.

On the other hand, the arterial needs to the extracorporeal circuit from vasculature; thus, it may point to either direction. Different individuals with different body properties often displace the same differences in the inside. Therefore, different individuals often have different sizes in their blood vessels. Some blood vessels are straight as arrows, others are tortuous, while others are undulating up and down. This variation in the blood vessels often make cannulation of the Arteriovenous Fistulae (AVFs) technically more challenging than Arteriovenous (AV) cannulation grafts.

Thus, it is vital to consider the co-morbidilities of each patient since they can affect the flow of blood through access and fistula development as well as quality of the blood vessel available for the access creation. Nonetheless, the more challenging accesses often require a high-level expertise from the patient care staff for a successful annulation.