Experience with Arteriovenous Shunts in Leukemic Patients

THE TEFLON arteriovenous shunt (AV shunt), originally developed by Quinton et al1for use with the artificial kidney, has generally been adopted for extracorporeal irradiation of the circulating blood (ECIB) in the experimental therapy of human leukemia by us2-4and others.5,6The problems associated with the long-term management of these shunts in patients with chronic renal insufficiency have been discussed by other workers.7-9Our experience has differed from that reported in patients with chronic renal failure and we, therefore, considered it pertinent to publish our findings in the hope that these might prove to be of some use to investigators employing ECIB in leukemic patients. Materials and Methods Thirty-three patients with leukemia, admitted to the hospital of the Medical Research Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory, from November 1964 to March 1967 have been treated by ECIB. Sixteen of these patients had acute myelocytic leukemia (AML), 11 patients