ABSTRACT
Background: Umbilical vein catheter (UVC) insertion in newborns has life threatening complications like Catheter related bloodstream infections (CRBSI), Portal vein thrombosis (PVT) and other mild complications. This study has been done to assess the incidence and risk factors of complications in neonates with umbilical vein catheterisation.Methods: A prospective observational study was carried out in neonates admitted to a South Indian tertiary care hospital between January 2017- June 2018.Results: Umbilical vein catheterisation was done for 65 neonates, of them 46 completed the study. One neonate (2%) developed CRBSI and none of them developed PVT in both baseline and follow up scans. Minor complications noted were repositioning in 26%, umbilical site leak in 23%, reattempts in 19%, catheter block in 13%, periumbilical erythema in 6% and umbilical site bleed in 2%. There was no statistical significance between minor complications and baseline study characteristics.Conclusions: Although UVC is a common and easy vascular access, it is not without complications. Incidence of serious complications following umbilical vein catheterisation is low when proper technique and sterile precautions are followed. However, the occurrence of mild complications following UVC insertion is high.
ABSTRACT
Nutritional deficiencies are common in adolescent children and include deficiencies of both micro- and macronutrients. Magnesium is an important mineral that is essential for maintenance of numerous electrophysiological and biochemical processes in the body. We report an adolescent girl who developed an episode of syncope with first degree heart block on electrocardiography and run of multifocal atrial ectopics on 24 h holter monitoring. Serum magnesium was found to be low with decreased urinary magnesium excretion. There were no other electrolyte abnormalities. Structural heart disease was ruled out by a normal echocardiogram. The rhythm changes were attributable to nutritional hypomagnesemia and were promptly reversed on correcting the hypomagnesemia