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Volume 4 Supplement 1

8th WINFOCUS World Congress on Ultrasound in Emergency and Critical Care

A complication of port-a-cath: disconnection and migration of central venous catheter to pulmonary artery. A case report.

Critical Ultrasound Journal volume 4, Article number: A24 (2012) Cite this article

A 50 year old woman, with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Login to removal because of the disconnection between the catheter and the subcutaneous port, diagnosed in routine check. In this case the X-ray showed the disconnection between the catheter and the subcutaneous port. And the consequent migration of the catheter, through cardiac cavities, into the pulmonary artery. Embolized catheter was removed by interventional radiology, under local anesthesia and intravenous sedation.The retrieval of the fragment was performed successfully using a snare catheter passed through the right femoral vein.

Discussion

The central venous cannulation and placement of permanent vascular access is a common technique in cancer patients. This is an invasive procedure, non-therapeutic or curative in itself, which can lead to serious complications, even death.

The iconography of this case demonstrates a mechanical complication, potentially severe and rare placement of a port-a-cath. Embolized catheters can be removed by interventional radiology without significant adverse affects. The patient recovered without complications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, Hospital Arnau de Vilanova, Lleida, Spain

    Maria Farré Pinilla, S Enriquez Bargalló, N Garcia Ruiz, P Espachs Biel, J Vilà Justribó & A Montero Matamala

Authors
  1. Maria Farré Pinilla
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  2. S Enriquez Bargalló
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  3. N Garcia Ruiz
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  4. P Espachs Biel
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  5. J Vilà Justribó
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  6. A Montero Matamala
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maria Farré Pinilla.

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Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Farré Pinilla, M., Bargalló, S.E., Ruiz, N.G. et al. A complication of port-a-cath: disconnection and migration of central venous catheter to pulmonary artery. A case report.. Crit Ultrasound J 4 (Suppl 1), A24 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1186/2036-7902-4-S1-A24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/2036-7902-4-S1-A24

Keywords

  • Breast Cancer
  • Catheter
  • Pulmonary Artery
  • Interventional Radiology
  • Local Anesthesia