**2. Vascular access**

Vascular access remains a predominant cause of morbidity in haemodialysis patients. There is significant global variation in the use of the different types of haemodialysis access. There have now been a number of studies examining trends of access use (Ethier et al., 2008; Pisoni et al., 2002) and further, epidemiological associations between access type and outcomes (Dhingra et al., 2001; Ishani et al., 2005; Moist et al., 2008; Pastan et al., 2002; Polkinghorne et al., 2004; Xue et al., 2003).
