ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Central venous catheters are often required in oncologic patients for long-term safe administration of chemotherapeutic agents, antibiotics, and parenteral nutrition. Rupture of these devices and intracardiac migration is a rare complication. METHODS: We report one spontaneous rupture and embolization of a totally implantable vascular access device (TIVAD) in an asymptomatic patient. RESULTS: A 50-year-old woman received a TIVAD silicone catheter 8 FR for adjuvant chemotherapy. After 3 years of port time in situ, during a follow-up control, a catheter malfunction was found and radiologic investigations showed a rupture and migration of the catheter to the right ventricle. The attempt to remove the fragment under fluoroscopic control using the femoral route was unsuccessful. We did not try a surgical approach because of the complete absence of symptomatology and hemodynamic impairment. CONCLUSIONS: The catheter rupture and intracardiac embolization is a rare complication associated with totally implantable or tunneled central venous catheters. When such an event happens, the patient should be managed by expert hemodynamists or interventional radiologists making an effort to remove the fragment without surgical measures. When the intravascular percutaneous route fails, the possibility to leave the fragmented catheter in heart chambers should be evaluated, being surgery questionable in asymptomatic patients.
Subject(s)
Antineoplastic Agents/administration & dosage , Catheterization, Central Venous/instrumentation , Central Venous Catheters , Device Removal , Embolism/therapy , Foreign-Body Migration/therapy , Jugular Veins , Administration, Intravenous , Catheterization, Central Venous/adverse effects , Chemotherapy, Adjuvant , Embolism/diagnosis , Embolism/etiology , Equipment Design , Equipment Failure , Female , Foreign-Body Migration/diagnosis , Foreign-Body Migration/etiology , Heart Ventricles , Humans , Jugular Veins/diagnostic imaging , Middle Aged , Phlebography/methods , Risk Factors , Time Factors , Tomography, X-Ray Computed , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
The aims of surgery in rectal prolapse are various: reducing the prolapse, preventing relapse, clearing up incontinence and avoiding constipation. Among several technical options available, anterior rectopexy would appear to be the most suitable for achieving these aims. A retrospective clinical study was conducted in 32 patients operated on from January 1996 to June 1999. For patient recruitment, the preoperative examinations were clinical evaluation, barium enema, anorectal manometry, and urodynamic tests. Surgical procedures were Orr-Loygue rectopexy in 29 cases and Ripstein rectopexy in 3 cases. A sigmoidectomy was also performed in 9 cases and a Burch cystopexy in 4 cases. Early results are available for all patients; only 29 have been evaluated after a mean follow-up of 47 months (range: 30-72). Rectal tenesmus, faecal incontinence and urinary incontinence improved in all cases. Constipation cleared up in 9 cases after a complementary sigmoidectomy; in 15 of the remaining 20 patients constipation persisted or developed. Indications for surgery for rectal prolapse must be considered with caution. The good results of anterior rectopexy depend on correct surgical technique and prevention of septic and pelvic complications. Sigmoidectomy does not increase the morbility rate. A planned colic resection in patients with delayed transit would prevent postoperative constipation. The good results are stable even over long-term follow-up periods. This procedure is also effective for the treatment of genital prolapses.
