Permacath

The decision to retrieve chronically implanted abandoned leads and trapped intracardiac devices percutaneously has been difficult and highly controversial. We present two case reports in which electrophysiological ablation catheter was used to retrieve infected abandoned pacemaker lead and trapped permacatheter (permacath) in right ventricle. We could avert major cardiovascular surgeries in both the patients by simply modifying the traditionally used techniques for extraction of intracardiac devices.

Central venous placement using ultrasound has significantly reduced the complications associated with blind puncture. The central venous catheter can still get misplaced if it follows an anomalous route after appropriate puncture of desired vessel. We report a case of misplaced dialysis catheter into the accessory hemiazygos vein which resulted in a large hemothorax, and we recommend the routine use of a fluoroscope for placement of dialysis catheters so as to avoid serious complications.

OBJECTIVE: To determine frequency of different vascular access use in Incident hemodialysis (HD) patients and determine whether predialysis care in terms of timely advice for vascular access placement was better in the hands of nephrologist. METHODS: A cross sectional study was conducted. Data was collected on the type of access used for first HD, including temporary Central venous catheters (CVC), permanent CVC (Permacath), arteriovenous fistula (AVF), or arteriovenous graft (AVG)...

OBJECTIVE: To study the outcome of radiologically placed double lumen tunneled haemodialysis catheters for the management of renal failure. STUDY DESIGN: Case series. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY: Interventional Suite of Radiology Department at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, from April 2010 to June 2011. METHODOLOGY: All consecutive patients who were referred to the department of radiology by the nephrologists for double lumen tunneled haemodialysis catheter (Permacath) placement during the study period were included...

PATIENT: Female, 50 FINAL DIAGNOSIS: Double superior vena cava Symptoms: - MEDICATION: - Clinical Procedure: - Specialty: Nephrology. OBJECTIVE: Anatomical anomaly/variation. BACKGROUND: Superior vena cava anomalies are caused by variations in the development of the embryonic thoracic venous system. Duplication of the superior vena cava is a rare anomaly with an incidence in the general population of 0.3%. The majority of cases are asymptomatic and diagnosed incidentally by imaging done for another reason...

Rhodococcus equi (R. equi) is an uncommon cause of infection in immunocompetent individuals. We describe a case of R. equi bacteremia associated with hemodialysis (HD) catheter in an immunocompetent patient. A 38-year-old female with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) of uncertain etiology, on HD for the past 15 months who was previously healthy otherwise, was admitted with the complaints of intermittent fever, mild nausea and occasional vomiting for two weeks. Last HD was performed four days earlier through a tunneled right internal jugular permacath...

Paenibacilli are gram-positive, aerobic bacteria that are related to Bacilli but differ in the DNA encoding their 16S rRNA. Until recently, these organisms were not known to cause human disease. There are now several reports of human infection caused by a few members of this genus, most commonly by P. alvei. We report a human infection in a patient with a permacath for chronic hemodialysis who was found to have bacteremia caused by P. thiaminolyticus, which is an environmental bacterium that has never been found to cause human disease...

Peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) requires a high-flow catheter for adequate cell collection by apheresis and long i.v. support, this is usually achieved by multiple catheters. We analyzed our experience with Mahurkar or Permacath for apheresis and long-term i.v. support in PBSCT, cared for exclusively by an i.v. therapy team. Fifty-six catheters were used in 53 patients that completed PBSCT (28 Permacath and 28 Mahurkar). In 10 patients (19%) the same catheter was used for multiple PBSCT. The average stay was 58...

Complications of hemodialysis accesses are a major cause of morbidity in chronic hemodialysis patients. Although several investigators have reported on the utilization of inpatient services for hemodialysis access complications, there is a paucity of data regarding the utilization of outpatient services and temporary accesses for these complications. In this retrospective study, we identified all access-related inpatient admissions and outpatient encounters and procedures performed in an incident cohort of hemodialysis patients...

Between July 1984 and July 1991, we have inserted surgically 147 Permcath Quinton catheters in 126 uremic patients for the following reasons: group I: necessity of hemodialysis without vascular access for acute (group Ia: 44 patients) or chronic renal failure (group Ib: 11 patients); group II: difficulty of creation or loss of vascular access (group II: 45 patients); group III: hemodialysis for patients with short life expectation or contraindications for vascular access on their limbs (group III: 26 patients)...