HI for those who know my story know I have many surgeries coming up and I am trying to get as many as possible done in one shot…I have to remove my pd , get a fistula and when stomach heals I am going to have pd put back in but my question is insttead of having to go under general 2 xs can’t they both be done by same surgeon and do I have to have general anesthia for fistula and also to have pd removed???
I’m not sure, Piglets. That’s a good question. Usually a vascular (blood vessel) surgeon needs to do a fistula–and it’s very important to get the best possible vascular surgeon who has done LOTS of successful fistulas.
A vascular surgeon should be able to remove a PD catheter, since that would be general surgery, and vascular surgery is a subspecialty of general surgery. But you’d have to ask your vascular surgeon if he would feel comfortable with that.
Oops, missed the anesthesia question. I have heard of folks having fistulas done with a local and Versed–a sedative that also helps you forget the experience. It is also possible to have a local anesthetic for PD catheter placement (I’m not sure about removal, but probably). So, it’s certainly possible that you might be able to avoid general anesthesia if you want to. Again, talk with your surgeon.
I was really out of it as I was really sick when I had to get my PD cath taken out and have a perm cath put in. You see … a AV Fistula needs time to mature before it can be used. And from what you posted it seems you are asking about temporary access while they take the old PD cath out and put a new one in and for it to heal? I don’t quite understand your question but if they were taking the PD cath out and you had no other access they would most likely put in a perm cath. If they said you will have to get a fistula but will go back on PD eventually then I would think they should do the fistula surgery before taking the PD catheter out.
You should discuss this with your medical team as it is very hard to know the details of your situation.
Hope I was a little helpful anyway 