Before hemodialysis can be done, a way for blood to leave and return to your body (an access) is needed. A hemodialysis access is often made in your arm. The two main types of accesses are an arteriovenous fistula (AV fistula) and an arteriovenous graft (AV graft).
If you and your healthcare team have chosen hemodialysis to treat your kidney failure, you'll need an access point, or connection point, so that your blood can be cleaned by the dialysis machine several times a week. For most people, this access point is an AV fistula, often made in the patient's arm. By watching this program, you'll learn how your dialysis care team will access the fistula during dialysis.
Hemodialysis is a type of procedure that involves the patient being connected to a machine to clean their blood of any excess fluid or waste material. On average, each session of hemodialysis lasts 4 hours and must be done three times a week in a dialysis center. Learn more about hemodialysis by watching this program.
