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Central venous catheter pinch-off and fracture: recognition, prevention and management

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 31, pages 927–930 (2003)Cite this article

Summary:

The so-called pinch-off syndrome is observed in up to 1% of all central venous catheters (CVCs), and is a valuable warning prior to fragmentation, which occurs in approximately 40% of the respective cases. As long-term indwelling CVCs are used with increasing frequency, this paper describes the necessity of pinch-off monitoring following the experiences of a case study and a review of the current literature on this specific topic in order to point out preventive practice guidelines.

Besides easy preventive practices such as a high level of suspicion and adequate X-ray controls, findings give strong evidence that the most important specific factor might be the adequate approach.

In our hands, the supraclavicular technique has provided the best results with regards to percutaneous introduction of large bore CVCs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine I, Clinical Division of Oncology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    B Fazeny-Dörner, C Wenzel & C Marosi

  2. Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Clinical and Experimental Oncology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    B Fazeny-Dörner, C Wenzel & C Marosi

  3. Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Vienna, Sensengasse 6, Vienna, Austria

    A Berzlanovich

  4. Department of Medicine III, Division of Nephrology and Dialysis, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    G Sunder-Plassmann

  5. Department of Medicine I, Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    H Greinix

  6. Department of Anesthesiology, IFA, Inselspital, University of Berne, Berne, Switzerland

    M Muhm

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  1. B Fazeny-Dörner
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  7. M Muhm
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Fazeny-Dörner, B., Wenzel, C., Berzlanovich, A. et al. Central venous catheter pinch-off and fracture: recognition, prevention and management. Bone Marrow Transplant 31, 927–930 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1704022

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1704022

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