• Michael S Stecker, Matthew S Johnson, Jun Ying, Gordon McLennan, David M Agarwal, Jan Namyslowski, Iftikhar Ahmad, Himanshu Shah, Sabah Butty, and Thomas Casciani.
• Department of Radiology, Division of Angiography and Interventional Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 75 Francis Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. mstecker@partners.org
• J Vasc Interv Radiol. 2007 Oct 1;18(10):1232-9; quiz 1240.

PurposeMany patients undergo placement of tunneled cuffed central venous catheters (TCCVCs) for indications including administration of medical therapy and hemodialysis. They are removed when no longer needed or if there is a device complication. There is no consensus regarding the necessity of routine preremoval coagulation studies or platelet count, so this study was performed to determine if abnormal coagulation status affects the time to hemostasis (TH) after traction removal of TCCVCs.Materials And MethodsAdult patients referred to our group for removal of a TCCVC placed via a jugular or subclavian route were considered candidates for inclusion. Blood was submitted for evaluation of prothrombin time (PT) and International Normalized Ratio (INR), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), and platelet count. Catheters were removed with the traction technique, and presence of hemostasis was assessed at 5-minute intervals of manual compression.ResultsBetween November 19, 2001, and April 20, 2004, 179 subjects were enrolled and completed the study. There were 165 subjects in whom TH was within the first 5-minute interval and 14 in whom more than 5 minutes was required. Statistically significant factors associated with prolonged TH were primary diagnosis of end-stage renal disease (P = .005), use of antiplatelet agents (P = .03), and procedure performed by a "low-volume" operator (P = .002).ConclusionsRoutine preremoval evaluation of coagulation parameters is not necessary. Patients who are likely to have abnormal platelet function but not abnormal platelet number appear to be at risk for prolonged TH, but even in those cases, the THs are rarely more than 15 minutes.

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