Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

2-24-2015

Journal

Patient Safety in Surgery

Volume

Volume 9

Inclusive Pages

Article number 9

Abstract

We present a case of needle separation during central venous catheter (CVC) placement in a super morbidly obese patient with subsequent surgical intervention in its retrieval. This complication, potentially lethal due to the relevant anatomy of such a procedure, alerts critical care physicians and surgeons to the possibility of equipment failure and stresses proper technique in what has become a routine procedure. It also emphasizes the routine use of ultrasound-guidance for cannulation in patients of any body habitus. While infection and arrhythmia are the generally known complications of CVC placement, clinicians must be alert to unanticipated events such as needle separation. In our case, the retrieval of this needle required multi-disciplinary intervention between radiology, critical care, vascular surgery, and thoracic surgery. Our event stresses hypervigilance to complications in a common procedure.

Comments

Reproduced with permission of BioMed Central. Patient Safety in Surgery.

The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Peer Reviewed

1

Open Access

1

Included in

Surgery Commons

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