Stent Tek Limited: Improving outcomes for hemodialysis patients through minimally invasive vascular access creation.

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Some 2.4m people worldwide have kidney conditions which require their blood to beroutinely externally filtered. This haemodialysis treatment requires their circulatory (i.e.blood) system to be regularly connected to a dialysis machine. This requires patients toundergo a surgical procedure to prepare their vessels by forming a connection between anartery and a vein in their arm; called a fistula. However fistulas are unreliable, often blockingand requiring repeated costly repair operations (costing US$4.6bn/year in the USA). Failuresof the fistula also present a serious danger to life. This project will investigate the concept ofusing a stent graft (synthetic tube) to form the fistula and its insertion via a novel surgical tool.The overall procedure will be significantly less invasive than surgery, and it aims to offerimproved long-term stability and provide a better quality of life for patients and their familiesand will result in significant cost savings to healthcare providers.