The Effect of Oxygen on Healing an Artery From the "Injury" of Surgery

Many grafts placed for dialysis access fail which causes patients to undergo additional operations, decreases their quality of life, and increases health care costs. The purpose of this study is to see if dialysis access grafts will function longer for patients who receive additional oxygen by means of a nasal cannula for 42 days after placement of their graft. Patients will have periodic blood tests to measure oxygen levels in their blood. A series of ultrasound examinations of patient's dialysis grafts will be taken to ensure the graft is open and to measure the cellular proliferation (intimal hyperplasia) for comparison in those receiving extra oxygen and those with no oxygen.