Aims:

To assess the possible association between the manner of arteriovenous fistula cannulation and the patient pain related to the insertion of the needle for the hemodialysis session.

Methodology:

The PRISMA statement for systematic reviews has been followed. Six databases have been consulted: Medline, Scopus, Cuiden, CINAHL, SciELO, and Cochrane PLUS. In addition, a secondary manual search was performed to detect grey literature not found in databases or through defined strategies. Inclusion criteria: studies of level of evidence 1 on the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network scale, published in the last 10 years, Spanish/English languages, and topics related to the techniques used to canalize the hemodialysis fistula. The articles were critically evaluated to detect any risk of bias using the CASPe instrument and the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions.

Results:

A total of 150 results were identified, 9 of which were finally selected. The results have been very heterogeneous, finding results for pain, infection rates number of attempts of channalization, blood flow, venous pressure, time of hemostasis, safety, aneurysmal dilations, esthetics of the fistula-carrying arm and quality of life of the patient.

Conclusions:

The evidence does not support the preferential use of the buttonhole technique over traditional channeling. Therefore, it is necessary to improve the methodological quality and a larger sample size to elucidate which technique gives better benefits with respect to pain, thus allowing to improve the quality of life of hemodialysis patients.