Seoul St. Mary's Hospital Achieves 10,000 Cases of Lifeline Hemodialysis 'Vascular Procedures' "First in Korea"

Catholic University Seoul St. Mary's Hospital announced on the 31st that its Nephrology Interventional Nephrology Clinic has achieved 10,000 cases of interventional procedures such as hemodialysis central venous catheter insertion and percutaneous angioplasty of hemodialysis vascular access for the first time in Korea.

Starting from the first procedure on March 26, 2009, the clinic has accumulated 10,000 procedures over 14 years up to this month. This is the largest number of procedures performed solely by a nephrology department in the country.

Director Yoon Seung-gyu (fourth from the left in the front row) and the staff of the Interventional Nephrology Clinic are taking a commemorative photo.

End-stage renal disease patients require vascular access for hemodialysis treatment. When vascular access such as an arteriovenous fistula is not prepared in advance for end-stage renal disease patients or in cases of acute renal failure, a central venous catheter is temporarily inserted for hemodialysis treatment. For continuous hemodialysis treatment, an arteriovenous fistula created by anastomosing the patient's own artery and vein or a synthetic graft is used.

However, due to frequent punctures during hemodialysis treatment, hemodynamic stress, toxic substances from uremia, and oxidative stress, the inner diameter of the blood vessels gradually narrows, inevitably causing stenosis and thrombosis. When stenosis or thrombosis occurs, dialysis treatment becomes impossible, directly threatening the patient's life, so these vascular accesses can be considered the lifeline of hemodialysis patients.

The Interventional Nephrology Clinic at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital is the first system in Korea to strengthen specialized care by nephrologists, providing accurate, consistent, and efficient treatment from diagnosis of hemodialysis vascular access dysfunction to examination, treatment, and complication management.

The Interventional Nephrology Clinic performs procedures such as insertion of tunneled hemodialysis catheters for initiating hemodialysis, percutaneous thrombectomy, angioplasty, and stent insertion to resolve thrombosis and stenosis in arteriovenous fistulas or synthetic grafts used for hemodialysis.

The interventional procedure takes 30 to 60 minutes, is relatively short, and patients experience minimal pain with only sedative administration, allowing outpatient treatment. Through these painless and safe procedures, hemodialysis patients can resolve chronic vascular access problems.

The Interventional Nephrology Clinic has established itself as a core division of the hospital's Hemodialysis Vascular Center, led by Professors Park Hoon-seok and Kim Yenny from the Department of Nephrology. The clinic's outstanding achievements in this field are largely credited to Professor Kim Yong-soo, Emeritus Professor at Catholic University College of Medicine, who first introduced interventional nephrology in Korea. Professor Kim established the Interventional Nephrology Clinic at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital in 2009, providing optimal treatment to hemodialysis patients suffering from vascular access problems, and successfully established this system until his retirement in 2022.

In recognition of this, the International Society of Nephrology designated Seoul St. Mary's Hospital's Interventional Nephrology Clinic as an international interventional nephrology training center, recognizing Seoul St. Mary's Hospital as one of 12 training centers in 10 countries worldwide.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.