Central venous dialysis catheters are indispensible as a rapid large lumen access to the blood compartment. If such a central venous catheter is necessary for longer than 2-3 weeks it is better to implant a tunnelled cuffed catheter initially or to switch early from the non-tunnelled acute catheter to a tunnelled cuffed catheter. Tunnelled cuffed catheters can be used for many weeks or even years and the complication rate is less than that of non-tunnelled acute catheters. The proportion of dialysis patients with long-term dialysis using tunnelled cuffed catheters has increased rapidly in recent years and now stands at approximately 20 % in Germany. These catheters are, however, prone to more infectious complications and more thromboses than native arteriovenous fistulas or prosthetic shunts. The mortality of patients with long-term dialysis catheters is also higher than those with arteriovenous shunts. For these reasons central venous catheters will always be regarded as the third choice dialysis access when arteriovenous fistulas are not possible. Catheters are available in a wide variety of designs but the individual advantages are still unclear. In order to avoid short-term and long-term complications a variety of measures for implantation and use during dialysis treatment have been developed which make the use safer.