Boletín de la Asociación Médica de Puerto Rico
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Review Case Reports
Distal fragmented port catheter: case report and review of literature.
Insertion of long-term central venous catheters (CVC) plays a vital role in providing continuous venous access for therapy in children. CVC line fractures are most commonly seen after long-term periods of therapy during removal. Usual place of rupture is proximal, at the point of entrance of the catheter into the vein, when the subclavian approach is utilized. We discuss a case that shows that CVC can also fracture in places different than the most common location and is possible not to detect that a fracture has occurred if a substantial portion of catheter is removed. ⋯ Most important single step in preventing such complication is to keep record of the patient length of catheter that was inserted to be able to measure it after removal confirming it still has the same length. Fragmented CVC should be removed using percutaneous endovascular techniques.