Developing recommendations for vascular access for hemodialysis: Vascular Access Working Group of the Italian Society of Nephrology

This paper presents an overview of the project carried out by the Vascular Access (VA) Working Group of the Italian Society of Nephrology with the aim of developing 4 position papers at the national level on how to choose, use, and implant the different, possible types of vascular access. The topics of the project are: 1) recommendations on the use of prosthetic arteriovenous fistulas for vascular access in hemodialysis, 2) recommendations on the use of venous catheters for hemodialysis, 3) infections induced by a venous catheter for hemodialysis, and 4) how to create and maintain a vascular access for hemodialysis. This paper also gives an explanation of the difficulties existing in Italy in the implementation of international guidelines, mostly due to significant differences in the procedures for the creation of VA, compared with the countries where most of the literature on the subject has been published. Individual position papers were drafted for each of the different topics. A list of recommendations was produced based on existing guidelines. Then these recommendations were critically reviewed by experts working in Italy, who expressed their opinion on their inclusion in position papers. The working method used to gather the opinions of the various experts is described. The final target is to provide clinicians interested in VA with updated documents on selected topics. Such documents will be updated periodically, and they will present a thorough overview of expert opinions.