Long-term central venous catheters – characteristics and complications

Abstract

Central venous catheters have become an important tool in modern health care and has an important role in many medical procedures and therapies such as administration of various intravenous medications, haemodynamic monitoring, and blood sampling. In 2014 the “venous access” group, responsible for catheter insertion and follow-up, was established at UNN Tromsø. Since the establishment, no systematic assessment of the service has been done. The main objective for this study was to obtain accurate quality data on central venous ports and Hickmann catheters inserted by the catheter unit staff at UNN Hf. We specifically set out to investigate complication rates, catheter lifetime, and patency of all catheters inserted. We retrospectively collected data from January 1st 2017 to December 31st 2019. 226 catheters inserted in children and adults from the region of Troms and Finnmark were included. Malfunction, thrombosis, and infection were the most frequent complications. The overall complication rate was 0.8/1000 catheter days in ports and 2.7/1000 catheter days in Hickman catheters. Hickman catheters were more likely to be both malfunctioning and site of infection compared to central venous ports (p=0.002 and p=0.02, respectively).