Survival Analysis of Tunneled Cuffed Central Venous Catheters in Maintenance Hemodialysis Patients: A Retrospective Study in China

Aim. The study aimed to investigate the clinical epidemiological data and the survival rate of maintenance hemodialysis patients with tunneled cuffed central venous catheters (TCCs) in a single hemodialysis center in China. Methods. We retrospectively investigated the general clinical characteristics (including sex, age, primary causes, and catheter outcome) of 316 patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (MHD) via TCC for >3 months at Wannan Medical College Affiliated Yijishan Hospital, Wuhu, China, from July 2011 to June 2021. The long-term survival rate of the catheters was determined by Kaplan-Meier survival analyses. Results. A total of 316 patients (137 males, 179 females) were included, with a mean age of 65.0 +/- 15.5 years. The right internal jugular vein was the most commonly used central vein, accounting for 89.1% of catheterizations. After censoring for noncatheter-related events leading to the removal of the catheter, the mean survival time of the TCCs was 26.2 +/- 19.8 smonths and the median survival time was 58.0 (95% CI, 54.0-62.0) months. Seventy patients had catheter loss-of-function events, with an incidence of 22.2%. Moreover, 97.3% of TCCs survived 1 year and 43.3% survived 5 years, respectively. The sex and age of the patients were not related to the survival rate ( p > 0.05). There were also no statistical differences between the primary diseases of patients and the survival rate of TCCs ( p > 0.05). Conclusion. In this study, we provide evidence of the mean TCC survival time beyond 2 years. We found that TCC is an effective alternative for MHD patients with poor vessel status or limited survival time or become a bridge waiting for arteriovenous fistula to mature, regardless of age, sex, and primary diseases.