Complications of short term multilumen central venous cannulation in children—a prospective study

摘要

SummaryA prospective study of the incidence of complications, when using multiple lumen central venous catheters in a paediatric intensive care unit, undertook to survey the normal practice of central venous cannulation at the Birmingham Children's Hospital, using a variety of devices and approaches over a period of a year from May 1991. Ninety five percent of the total of 252 devices used were triple lumen, the rest being double lumen catheters. There were 19 failures to secure access at the initial site chosen, but central venous access was secured in all cases. The complication rate during insertion was 18.5. There were three major and 20 minor non‐infective complications with a total incidence of 7.9. Twenty seven cases (10.8) suffered infective complications. The incidence of all complications were comparable to those obtained in studies involving the use of single lumen devices. This fact, coupled with the high success rate in catheter placement by operators of varying experience, suggests that multiple lumen central venous devices can be considered as a safe alternative to single lumen catheters for short term use in childre