A prospective evaluation of the Port-A-Cath implantable venous access system in chronically ill adults and children.

Totally implantable venous access systems are presently widely used, but large-scale, prolonged studies are lacking in evaluating adequately these systems. We prospectively evaluated 198 systems in 191 patients (ages from two months to 80 years) during a three year period, with a median follow-up time of 330 days (a range of two to 1,088 days). Withdrawal of blood was consistently successful in 91 per cent of the systems. Complication rates for infection and thrombosis were 0.04 and 0.03 per 100 days of catheterization, respectively. No episodes of migration of the catheter or embolization were noted. This was thought to be the result of the placement of all catheters by a cutdown technique rather than percutaneously. Five systems were removed because of thrombosis and 22, because of infection. Implantable venous access devices are reliable and have a low complication rate in adult and pediatric patients who require repetitive venous access.