Central venous catheters are important therapeutic resources nowadays, because of the development of critical care units, where these devices are aimed to monitorize hemodynamic parameters and to adminístrate drugs and parenteral nutrition to patients; massification of hemodyalisis, where central venous catheters are used as transitory accesses befare the definitive ones are obtained and in the oncologycal setting, to adminístrate chemotherapeutic drugs to
patients.
Nevertheless, the use of such devices is not harmless.
Several complications are reportad in current fiterature.
Mechanicall complications are frequent and they are found in 5-19% of patients in whom central venous catheters are installed. According to their prevalence, the most important are arterial puncture, hemothorax and pneumothorax. This review is aimed to update basic concepts regarding to mechanical complications associated to the use of central venous catheters and to show radiological images from eight patients who presented to the imagenology department of our
hospital with such complications.
Miranda, G., Vidal, A. ., Díaz, C. ., Díaz, J. C., Arancibia, P. ., & Antolini, M. . (2004). Complicaciones mecánicas relacionadas al uso de catéteres venosos centrales: revisión bibliográfica e imágenes. Revista Hospital Clínico Universidad De Chile, 15(4), pp. 332–8. https://doi.org/10.5354/2735-7996.2004.79213
