Vascular access catheters for chemotherapy. Long-term follow-up
Crea, P.
Medical Journal of Australia 1(10): 427-429
1982
ISSN/ISBN: 0025-729X PMID: 6808325 Document Number: 184624
Accessible surface veins become increasingly difficult to find after repeated venepunctures. This unfortunate situation often arises in patients on long-term chemotherapy, and can lead to soft tissue infiltration of toxic agents with resultant necrosis. A solution to this problem is the placement of long term indwelling vascular access catheters. Three different catheters are here described-the Raimondi, the Hickman, and the Broviac. They have been used 90 times in 78 patients over the last 2 1/2 years. All have been very successful in terms of ease of insertion, inertness, lack of post-operative infection, and prolonged duration of function. Thirty-five patients were available for long-term follow-up (greater than 6 months). Results in these show a mean catheter life varying from three to five months with a very low incidence of septicaemia, even in the immunologically compromised patients. The advantages of the various catheters are compared.