Vascular Access Flow during Dialysis: Does Needle Orientation Matter?

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript entitled " Vascular Access Flow during Dialysis: Does Needle Orientation Matter? " is very interesting even if not original.

The paper aims to evaluate to compare the orientation of the retrograde arterial needle with the commonly used antegrade orientation in terms of: (a) VAO measurements by the UD device and (b) quality of dialysis. Also, to compare VAO measurements using both RET and ANT arterial needle orientation with VAO measured by Doppler ultrasound.

The authors conclude that VAO (UD) in the RET orientation was significantly lower than VAO in the ANT orientation and more consistent with VAO assessed by Doppler without influencing dialysis adequacy. Therefore, when using UD for VAO surveillance, the RET orientation should be used.

However, a minor reassessment is suggested:

As this is a clinical practice study I would suggest adding 2-3 photos in order to better understand the VAO (UD ANT and RET orientation).

Line 130: please write Doppler and not doppler.

Bibliography: please standardize the bibliographic entries as suggested by the publisher.

 

Author Response

Thank you for your comments.

As you suggested we added 2 photos in order to better understand the RET and ANT orientation

Line 130: We made the change you requested, Doppler instead of doppler

We standardized the bibliographic entries as suggested by the publisher.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear Editor,

I have found the manuscript by Georgios Tsangalis and Valérie Loizon of high quality, written with excellent English and of significant practical importance. The vascular access blood flow measurement aspect studied with antegrade and retrograde arterial needle orientation seems to be intriguing and worth of further exploration. I convinced that the manuscript should be published in the present version. Congratulations to authors !

Author Response

Thank you for your comments.

 

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The article can be accepted in its current form