Reporting standards for central venous access.

CENTRAL venous access has become an integral component of modern medical care. Central venous access is defined as catheter placement with the tip positioned at the caval atrial region (1). The purpose of this document is to provide guidelines for reporting the methods and results of central venous access device (CVAD) studies (Table 1). Standardized reporting allows for comparison of the strengths and limitations of different devices, device insertion techniques, postprocedure care routines, and procedures to salvage device failure (2). The following CVAD reporting guidelines present the elements that should be documented in a study.