ADVANTAGES OF PORT-SYSTEMS COMPARED WITH VARIOUS METHODS OF LONG-TERM VENOUS ACCESS IN ONCOLOGY

Abstract

The issue of providing reliable, safe and at the same time least invasive venous access remains one of the topical issues of oncology. Installation of venous access for patients with oncological pathology is necessary for chemotherapy, blood sampling for analysis, as well as for palliative and symptomatic care for patients which has advanced stages of malignant process. Therapeutic agents can be administered in various ways: intra-arterially, intravenously, intraperitoneally. In the world of modern medicine, intravenous administration of drugs is most often used, since it provides a high rate of spread, as well as systemic action in the human body. However, not all medicinal substances are amenable to easy and safe delivery by parenteral route and, first of all, it concerns cytostatic agents. Chemotherapy has an irritating and sometimes damaging effect on the walls of peripheral vessels, and frequent blood fetuses and the introduction of parenteral chemotherapeutic agents entail complications in the form of phlebitis, thrombophlebitis and other septic processes that can lead to death. Despite the fact that the port system was invented more than 50 years ago, this device is increasingly used in the daily clinical practice of an oncologist and doctors of other specialties, including anesthesiology and pediatrics. So the port system is a small device which is placed under the skin under local anesthesia to perform certain medical manipulations related to the treatment and diagnosis of diseases. This article provides arguments on the appropriateness of using the subcutaneous venous port system, its advantages, disadvantages, as well as the features of its installation, exploitation and also their importance in the modern clinical medicine.

Keywords

• access, port-system, catheter, implantation