A 69-year-old woman with obstructive nephropathy required emergent hemodialysis. The initial placement of a catheter into the right jugular vein was not successful as it was not possible to establish adequate blood flow. The second catheter introduced into the right subclavian vein failed too. Therefore, there was a need to place a catheter in the left jugular vein. However, chest radiography s...

OBJECTIVES To determine the impact of an educational program on the prevention of central venous catheter-related infections in a Brazilian Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. PATIENTS AND METHODS All patients admitted to the unit between February 2004 and May 2005 were included in the cohort study in a longitudinal assessment. An educational program was developed based on the Centers for Disease ...

Central venous catheterisation was first performed in 1929when Werner Frossman, a German doctor, inserted a ureteric catheter into his antecubital vein. He then walked to the radiography department so that the catheter could be guided into his right ventricle using fluoroscopy. Since then, central venous access has become amainstay of modern clinical practice. An estimated 200 000 central venou...

BACKGROUND Home parenteral nutrition is established as standard management for patients with chronic severe intestinal failure. Although the treatment is welcomed by many patients, there are psychological consequences of living with a central venous catheter and there are associated restrictions to the lives of patients on home parenteral nutrition. A subgroup of home parenteral nutrition patie...

Central venous catheters are a commonly used medical device which may sometimes cause complications. We present first case who had an asystolic cardiac arrest during insertion of a central venous catheter, needed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and was resuscitated successfully. A46-year lady presented to the emergency department due to mushroom poisoning. Acentral venous catheter was inse...

The central venous catheter (CVC) is associated with numerous complications more so during the process of insertion. We report for the first time how an indwelling catheter was entrapped by a replacement catheter on the same side, after being speared by the introducer needle and guidewire. The diagnosis was made when there was difficulty in removing the old catheter. Subsequently, interventiona...

A fractured central venous catheter (CVC) with embolization of the distal fragment may lead to life-threatening complications. We had inserted a right subclavian CVC in a 68-year-old female which upon a follow-up chest X-ray appeared to have been sheared. A guidewire was inserted through the CVC until the J-tip was just beyond the tip of the CVC which were then withdrawn as a single assembly. W...

Percutaneous Central Venous Catheter (CVC) insertion using internal jugular and Subclavian veins routes is common procedure for all intensive care admitted patients and some patients in the ward as demand arises in central and referral hospitals of Botswana. This is a case report of a patient on whom a third attempt of re-inserting a CVC for fluid and total parenteral nutrition (TPN) was made. ...

Percutaneous insertion of central venous catheter (CVC) is a valuable procedure in managing critically ill patients. However, placement of CVC is not without its complications. The author reports a case in which a CVC was inserted into the right pleural cavity which was not detected by the usual clinical methods of confirming catheter placement and an antero-posterior (A-P) chest x-ray.