Evaluation of indications for long-term vascular catheter

Abstract

We evaluated the indications for long-term vascular catheter (VC), expected for a permanent vascular access (VA). Subjects were 47 renal failure patients (26 males, 21 females) in poor conditions ; 21 had acute renal failure (ARF) and 26 had chronic renal failure (CRF) (16 incident ally and 10 chronic ally dialyzed cases). The mean age was 66±14 years old, the mean serum albumin was 2.37±0.54 g/dL, the mean CRP was 5.14±5.36 mg/dL. We inserted 48 long-term VCs, 44 cases in the right internal jugular vein, three cases in the left internal jugular vein and one cases in the left subclavian vein. The average duration of long-term VCs was 49.5±56 days. The outcomes of long-term VCs were 16 cases of arteriovenous fistula (AVF) creation, 16 deaths (nine from malignant diseases, seven from sepsis), five infective symptoms, four recovery of renal function, two occlusions, two effective use and three other. The patency rate of long-term VCs was 80% after 30 days and 60% after 90 days. Using a long-term VC, hemodialysis therapy could be performed stably over seven weeks. The long-term VC was useful as VA bridging toward AVF creation in CRF patients and for renal replacement therapy until recovery from ARF, excect for permanent VA.