SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital First in Midwest to Offer New Minimally Invasive Procedure for Dialysis Access

St. Louis, MO  – SSM Health St. Mary’s Hospital is the first hospital in the Midwest to offer a new FDA-approved, minimally invasive procedure to establish vascular access for patients requiring dialysis treatment. The procedure, WavelinQ™ EndoAVF System by Becton Dickinson, is the latest breakthrough in arteriovenous fistula (AVF) creation for dialysis. 
 
Currently, St. Mary’s Hospital is one of only eight sites in the United States performing the new WavelinQ™ procedure and has the most successful cases so far with eight, according to Becton Dickinson. St. Mary’s is also one of only two designated training sites in the country.
 
"This is the first innovative breakthrough in the last 50 years regarding AVF creation,” said interventional nephrologist Alejandro Alvarez, MD. “It’s going to have a big impact on our patients by reducing the risk of catheters, infection and even future procedures, as well as increasing recovery time so they can begin dialysis treatment faster.”
 
The new, minimally invasive WavelinQ™ procedure offers the same benefits as surgery as well as lower infection rates, plus lower cost of delivery, without the painful inflammation and long recovery. In most cases, patients are able to go home and return to normal activity the next day. Furthermore, the time from fistula creation to first use for dialysis treatment is usually six weeks or less.
 
Surgical fistula creation has been the preferred technique for these patients. However, the surgery causes painful swelling that can last for weeks. Additionally, it increases the chances of a hospital stay, and the national average from creation to first use is 12 weeks. 
 
“Our patients go through so much – they are tied to a dialysis machine three days a week – they deserve an alternative, more advanced option,” says Dr. Alvarez, MD. “As physicians and leaders in the community, it is our job to try to bring access to these kinds of procedures to our patients and to continue learning and innovating. We are proud to be one of the first hospitals in the area to offer the WavelinQ™ procedure.”
 
More than 460,000 people in the U.S. are living with End-Stage Renal Disease, the most severe form of chronic kidney disease.