How much of a problem is a broken iv catheter?

RE: How much of a problem is a broken iv catheter?

Stumpy — Sun, 26 Apr 2020 09:15:50 GMT

Hi. She ended up being referred for her original problem and died at referral. Waiting for the referral report but not related to the catheter. Thank you for your help.

RE: How much of a problem is a broken iv catheter?

Roger Wilkinson — Sat, 25 Apr 2020 16:32:43 GMT

What was the outcome Stumpy? Did you locate it?

RE: Broken iv catheter

Stumpy — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 11:30:00 GMT

Thank you.

RE: Broken iv catheter

Dave Dickson — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 11:13:53 GMT

I've seen them end up in the lungs and sit there for the rest of the dogs life. I think retrieving it is going to be almost impossible and quite likely to do more harm than good, unless as Roger says you can find it close to the insertion site.

Take an Xray of the leg and of the chest. You may see it, you may not. If it's in the leg then you may be able to access it, but I'd be pretty wary of venotomy unless you are confident you can retrieve it.

Dave

RE: Broken iv catheter

Roger Wilkinson — Wed, 15 Apr 2020 21:13:12 GMT

Hmm yes, you're not the first to do that....

In my experience they have always remained in the limb somewhere rather than going anywhere more exotic.

I'd get some radiographs of the path of the vein. In my experience they are usually at least somewhat radio-opaque altho 22G obviously going to be slightly more tricky. I'd get a catheter of same brand and size and put it alongside leg during radiography so you have some idea how obvious the offending bit is going to be.

If you've a decent linear probe you'd probably be able to find it sonographically too by tracing the course of the vein. Ultrasound will facilitate venotomy to retrieve it.

I've no experience of migration to central sites. This appears to be very rare even in human medicine. A case report here

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../

Let us know outcome

Good luck

Roger