Abstract
The complications related to central venous catheters for total parenteral nutrition were evaluated in 75 pediatric patients. 42 out of 105 catheters used in these patients developed complications such as catheter related sepsis, accidental dislodgement, occlusion, leakage, and so forth. This amounted to an incidence of 40%. In this study 16 pediatric Broviac catheters have been used in patients receiving prolonged parenteral nutrition and in bone marrow transplant recipients. The rate of catheter sepsis was 3 (19%) in 16 Broviac catheters, which was not different from the incidence of 17% in 89 conventional Silastic catheters. Accidental removal of the Broviac catheter was never seen in this series, which occurred 24 times (27%) in the conventional Silastic catheters. When total days of therapy are considered, catheter related sepsis occurred once every 372 Broviac-use-days, and once in 125 conventional Silastic-use-days. On the basis of these observations, the Broviac catheter should currently be considered the catheter of choice for long term central venous alimentation and for venous access of bone marrow transplant recipients.
