Long-term central venous access: A narrative review

Abstract

Modern medicine is witnessing boom both on medical and surgical front, but venous access which is the basic and the most important step in patient care still remains an untouched and unexplored area. This review explains the different types of long-term venous access devices, their crucial role in the administration of various treatments and therapies to the patients, complications associated with their use, ways to manage these complications, and care and maintenance of these venous access devices. To change the perspective of the medical practitioners toward necessity of long-term sustainable and patient-friendly modality of venous access, is the need of the hour.

Keywords

• catheter-related thrombosis
• flushing
• heparin
• locking
• long-term central venous access devises
• peripherally inserted central catheters
• ports