Background: Optimal care of patients treated with a central tunneled catheter (CTC) as vascular access for hemodialysis requires a number of procedures. One of them is CTC removal, usually carried out using mostly the cut-down method (CDM) and the traction method (TM). The procedure seems to be simple and safe; however, occasionally, serious complications may occur. To eliminate the risk of such events, we have introduced a modified cut-down method (MCDM).
Methods: The study included the analysis of retrospective results of 143 CTC removal procedures, 76 of which were performed using the standard cut-down method (CDM), and in 67 cases, the modified cut-down method (MCDM) was applied.
Results: As minor side effects occurred in patients treated with both methods with comparable frequency, serious complications were observed only in the CDM patients group.
Conclusions: In our opinion, the new MCDM procedure is the simplest and safest method of CTC removal.
Keywords: central tunneled catheters; chronic kidneys disease; hemodialysis; vascular access.