Shalimov Center told how a kidney of a patient with arteriovenous fistula was saved
Kyiv • UNN
Doctors at the Shalimov Center performed a highly complex operation to save the only kidney of a patient with an arteriovenous fistula. Through a catheter, the damaged vessel was sealed with a special microspiral, which allowed to preserve the function of the organ.
The Shalimov National Research Center for Surgery and Transplantation performed a highly complex operation to save the kidney of a patient who, after the removal of his right kidney due to cancer in 2003, had not been examined for the past six years, UNN reports.
Details
According to the Center, the patient turned to doctors only when he felt urinary disturbances, and an ultrasound of his only kidney revealed several tumors that threatened its loss.
"To preserve the kidney's function, the specialists of the specialized medical institution performed an extremely complicated operation - resection of the tumor foci with the preservation of most of the kidney. Unfortunately, this intervention was complicated by damage to the kidney vessels with the formation of an arteriovenous fistula, which caused significant bleeding from the bladder (hematuria)," the post reads.
It is indicated that an arteriovenous fistula is a fistula that directly connects a vein and an artery. Normally, these elements of the circulatory system are not connected. In healthy people, blood from the arterial bed first goes to the capillaries, and from them it is collected in the veins. The danger of arteriovenous fistulas is that a large mass of arterial blood constantly enters the venous system.
According to the information, in such cases, the only chance to save the kidney is to block the damaged vessel through a catheter, i.e. endovascularly.
"In our highly specialized endovascular department of the Center, a specially shaped catheter was inserted into the artery of the patient's only left kidney through a puncture of the femoral artery. Under the control of X-ray, a contrast agent was injected into the renal artery, which allowed to see the damaged arterial branch as on a map. Since it was quite thin and tortuous, a smaller diameter tube, a microcatheter, was inserted into the catheter, which allowed us to reach the damaged vessel and seal it with a special device, a microspiral," the Center said.
According to the specialists, after 3 days of observation, the patient was discharged without signs of bleeding with normal kidney function.