Cephalic vein dilatation at the elbow by preoperative supervised forearm exercise depends on adherence to therapy: Results from the randomized controlled single-blind PINCH trial.

Maturation failure may be as high as 30%-60% of arteriovenous fistulas (AVF). Forearm exercise postoperatively has shown potential in increasing blood vessel size in patients with end-stage renal disease and may promote maturation of AVFs. Little evidence exists on the impact of pre-operative forearm exercises on the increase of vascular diameters. Aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of supervised forearm exercises on vascular diameters and AVF maturation.