Percutaneous placement of Arrow catheter for palliation of refractory ascites / 介入放射学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To report a simple, minimally invasive method of palliative drainage for symptomatic malignant ascites, in order to avoid repeated trips to hospital for paracentesis.Methods Since July 2000, 57 patients with symptomatic, large volume refractory ascites underwent percutaneous placement of Arrow catheter through a modified Seldinger technique with straight coaxial needles. There were 41 men and 16 women Age ranged from 34～83 years old with an average of 63, including 28 patients of primary liver cancer, 17 metastatic liver cancer, 5 Budd Charri syndrom, 4 pancreatic cancer, 2 peritoneal metastasis of gastric cancer and one with overian cancer. All patients underwent ascites drainage with Arrow catheter accompanied by medical treatment. Results The Arrow catheter had detained for 1 19 days with an average of 5.7 days. Draining amount of ascites was 800 12 000 ml, average 7 200 ml. No complication of sepsis, peritonitis, or significant hypotension after catheter placement but with 7 cases of persistent leakage around the catheter, 2 accidentally detached cathere, 2 cases of unfluent drainage and one case of inferior epigastric blood vessel injury.Conclusions Percutaneous placement of Arrow catheter using a modified Seldinger technique with coaxial needles is a safe, simple, and effective method for palliative drainage of malignant ascites that improves patients life quality.