• Bernhard Gebauer, Ulf Martin Karl Teichgräber, Michael Werk, Alexander Beck, and Hans-Joachim Wagner.
• Department of Radiology, Charité, Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Campus Virchow-Klinikum, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353, Berlin, Germany. bernhard.gebauer@charite.de
• Support Care Cancer. 2008 Aug 1;16(8):897-904.

Background And ObjectiveTraditionally, large lumen, tunneled central venous catheters have been implanted by surgeons. We used a technique of sonographically guided jugular venous puncture and fluoroscopically guided catheter placement to achieve a high rate of technical success and to reduce complication rates.Materials And MethodsBetween June 2002 and December 2006, 186 Patients have been referred to the Radiology Department for 211 implantations of large-lumen, tunneled, central venous catheters. Insertions were performed under maximum sterile barrier in the angio suite using combined sonographic guidance for puncture of the internal jugular vein and fluoroscopy for placement of a triple lumen 12.5 F catheter (Hickman, BARD Murray Hill, NJ, USA). All interventions were performed under local anesthesia without need for anesthesiologic surveillance. Peri- and postinterventional complications were recorded using standardized international recommendations.ResultsCatheter implantation was technically successful in 207 of 211 cases (98.1%). Technical failure resulted in four patients due to chronic occlusions of the superior vena cava. No major complications were recorded. Four (1.9%) accidental arterial punctures occurred peri-interventionally; 24 (11.4%) early complications (bleeding, dysfunction, catheter rupture, and infection) and ten (4.7%) late complications (infection, dysfunction) were recorded. A clinically suspected catheter infection required catheter removal in 21 (10%) cases; 11 of 13 non-infectious catheter complications (bleeding, dysfunction, rupture) could be treated successfully by interventional-radiological treatment.ConclusionPercutaneous implantation of large-lumen, tunneled, central venous catheters can be achieved with a high technical success rate and a low complication rate under combined sonographic and fluoroscopic guidance. In cases of mechanical complications, catheter rescue by interventional techniques is possible in the vast majority of cases.

23 keywords...

hide…