BACKGROUND Three types of totally implantable venous access devices, Ports, are currently in use: titanium, plastic (polyoxymethylene, POM), and mixed (titanium base with a POM shell). Physics theory suggests that the interaction between a non-coring needle (NCN, made of stainless steel) and a plastic base would lead to the stronger material (steel) altering the more malleable material (plastic...

Cardiac contractility modulation (CCM) is a relatively new electrical therapy for heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction. The majority of patients eligible for CCM will also need an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD). To-date, three pacing electrodes are mandatory for CCM therapy because the current CCM signal delivery algorithm requires sequential intracardiac sensing ...

PURPOSE A multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of patients with malignant diseases requires adequate venous access in order to safely administer chemotherapy, blood transfusion and blood products, antibiotics, rehydratation and total parenteral nutrition. The insertion of the central venous catheter (CVC), its use and its maintenance can be accompanied by multiple complications. METHOD...

Dear Editor: We have read with keen interest the article titled, “Usefulness of percutaneous puncture in insertion of totally implantable venous access devices in pediatric patients” by Choi et al. [1] published in the September 2017 issue of Vascular Specialist International. We congratulate the authors for extensive research and we would like to share our experience with Port-A-Caths (PACs) i...

We present two cases of misplaced central venous catheters having in common the absence of free blood return from one lumen immediately after placement. The former is a case of right hydrothorax associated with central venous catheterization with the catheter tip in intra-pleural location. In this case the distal port was never patent. In the latter case there was an increased aspiration pressu...

A central venous catheter tip located too high into the superior vena cava (SVC) is known to be a strong risk factor for central venous thrombosis and subsequent SVC syndrome. We report herein the usefulness of catheterizing the implanted port catheter lumen as a salvage procedure to circumvent a complete SVC occlusion in a breast cancer patient. Because the standard central vein catheterizatio...