Perviedade e complicações no seguimento de cateteres venosos totalmente implantáveis para quimioterapia Patency and complications in the follow-up of totally implantable catheters for chemotherapy

Background: Availability of venous access for patients that receive long-term cytotoxic therapy is of great importance to the success of treatment. Totally implantable devices have been increasingly more used for this therapy, providing improvement in the quality of life of patients. Objective: To evaluate patency and complications of totally implantable catheters inserted in oncological patients. Methods: Retrospective longitudinal study of 74 patients that underwent placement of totally implantable catheter from January 2004 throughout February 2007. Results: Totally implantable catheters were placed in 74 patients with mean age of 48.9 years; the female gender was predominant. The most prevalent neoplasms were breast (40.5%), colon (20.8%) and lymphoma (18.9%). Cervical access (74.3%) was prevalent, using the internal jugular vein in 45.9% of cases. Only 13.5% of accesses were inserted via subclavian vein puncture. Mean duration of catheter use was 335.33 days. Thirty six (48.6%) patients remained with the catheter after the chemotherapy was discontinued. There were no complications in 67 (90.5%) patients. Among early complications, there was one (1.4%) pneumothorax and one (1.4%) hematoma. Among late complications, there were five (6.7%) infections. Ten (13.5%) catheters were removed, five due complications and five after ending the treatment. Eleven (14.9%) patients died from cancer, and the catheters were still functioning. Conclusion: The outcomes obtained show low rate of complications, confirming that use of totally implantable catheters is safe and effective for patients undergoing chemotherapy.