Arteriovenous Fistula Creation by Nephrologist Access Surgeons Worldwide.

Several years ago, we published an article in this journal entitled "Autologous Arteriovenous Fistula Creation by Nephrologists." The goal of that effort was to review outcomes published by nephrologist access surgeons from around the world. An attempt was also made to define the elements that were necessary for successful autologous fistula creation in hopes that they might be used by others in an effort to increase the number of and durability of autologous fistulas in the dialysis population. Our goal, here, is to update the previous information based on recently published literature to better understand the role that nephrologist access surgeons play in the care of our dialysis patients worldwide.