Effect of statins on patency of arteriovenous fistula: a Meta-analysis

Objective  To evaluate the effect of statins on the patency of arteriovenous fistula in patients with chronic renal disease.

Methods  Up to July 9, 2022, a systematic literature search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Wanfang, CNKI, VIP, and Chinese Biomedical Literature database to collect randomized controlled trials and cohort studies on the patency rate of statins to arteriovenous fistulas. RevMan5.3 software was used for Meta- analysis.

Results  A total of 3 randomized controlled trials and 5 cohort studies were included, including 19755 patients with autologous arteriovenous fistula （AVF） and 3476 patients with arteriovenous graft （AVG）. The results showed that: （1） The patency rate of statins to AVF was significantly better than that of the control group （RR=1.09, 95%CI 1.01~1.18, P=0.03）. Further subgroup analysis showed that only the patency rate of AVF in Asia was significantly better than that of the control group （RR=1.19, 95%CI 1.03~1.38, P=0.02）. （2） There was no significant difference in the patency rate of statins to AVG compared with the control group （RR=1.00, 95%CI 0.87~1.15, P=1.00）.

Conclusions  Statins may help improve the patency of AVF in patients with chronic kidney disease, especially in Asia.