OBJECTIVE To investigate the use of vascular access among the maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) patients and observe the impact on complications so as to provide bases for standardized clinical management and maintenance of vascular access.

METHODS The MHD patients who were treated in hemodialysis center of The Affiliated Hospital of North Sichuan Medical College from Jan. 2015 to Jan. 2024 were recruited as the research subjects. The types of vascular access and incidence rates of complications caused by the vascular access were retrospectively analyzed.

RESULTS A total of 2 040 MHD patients who were treated with the vascular access were enrolled in the study, 1 795(87.99%) of whom were autogenous arteriovenous fistula (AVF), 80 (3.92%) were tunnel-cuffed catheter (TCC), and 28 (1.37%) were arteriovenous graft (AVG), 126 (6.18%) were non-cuffed catheter (NCC), and 11 (0.54%) were arteriovenous direct puncture. The incidence of complications of the TCC group was 32.50%, higher than 16.88% of the AVF group and 19.84% of the NCC group, and there was significant difference(χ²=12.915, 4.209; P < 0.001, 0.040); there was no significant difference in the incidence of complications between the AVF group (16.88%) and the NCC group (19.84%) (χ²=0.730, P=0.393).

CONCLUSIONS AVF is the major vascular access for the MHD patients, and the incidence of complications is relatively high among the patients treated with TCC. It is necessary for the hospital to attach great importance to the occurrence of catheter-related complications.