New Vascular-Access Intervention Assistance Plate Provides Good Operability and Safety by Preventing Accidental Falls: First Experience of 1,872 Cases

Vascular-access interventions are necessary for the continuation of hemodialysis, and they are performed under‎X-ray guidance. During interventions, patients’ accidental falls from the bed are a serious problem, and specialized‎fixation systems for hemodialysis patients to prevent their falls from the bed have been lacking. We‎developed a new fixation plate made of polypropylene homopolymer and tested its ability to prevent such falls‎retrospectively. This plate, which we named the ‘vascular-access intervention assistance plate,’ offers functional‎features such as the concurrent fixation of the body and either arm and an arm space with serrations for fixing a‎forearm strap. We performed computer simulations to examine the strength of the plate, and we evaluated the‎efficacy of fall prevention by reviewing patients’ medical records. The results demonstrated that the functional‎design of the plate provides good operability via accurate concurrent fixations of the body and arm. The computer‎simulation analysis results indicated the plate's sufficient strength. The medical records analysis revealed‎three accidental falls before the plate's introduction (401 patients, 1,437 interventions), and none after plate‎introduction (683 patients, 1,872 interventions). Accidental falls were significantly prevented by use of the‎plate (p<0.05). The dementia rate and type of procedure were not significantly different between the patients‎who fell and those who did not. This vascular-access intervention assisted plate provides good operability and‎safety by preventing accidental falls among hemodialysis patients.