Introduction: Aim of this study was to analyze the overall complication and failure rates of Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters (PICCs), in a 1-year consecutive unselected cohort of 482 adult patients, affected by non-hematological malignancies undergoing chemotherapy.
Methods: Adult outpatients (aged 18-75 years), with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0-2, bearing solid tumors and candidates for intravenous chemotherapy were eligible for the study. Exclusion criteria were active infections, coagulopathy (defined as platelet count <50,000/μL and/or prothrombin time more than 18 s), life expectancy <6 months, or inability to give written informed consent. Devices were all implanted in an outpatients' hospital facility, following predefined evidence-based institutional guidelines and protocols by a PICC-dedicated team at the European Institute of Oncology in Milan, Italy, during the 12-month period from January 1 to December 31, 2019.
Results: Five-hundred PICCs were implanted in a cohort of 482 patients during the time interval of this study. Thirty devices were overall removed (6.2%), 23 as a consequence of a complication occurred, and seven inadvertently. The inserted PICCs accounted for a total of 49,718 catheter days in situ, median duration was 85.5 days [interquartile range (IQR): 56-146]. Overall there were 42 (8.7%) complications, corresponding to 0.84 catheter-adverse events (CAE)/1000 PICC-days (95% CI: 0.61-1.14). There were N = 13 (2.7%) thromboses, N = 11 (2.3%) irreversible occlusions, N = 7 (1.5%) accidental removals, N = 5 (1.0%) infections [two Catheter Related Blood Stream Infection (CRBSI) and three exit site/local infection], N = 3 (0.6%) ruptures and N = 3 (0.6%) primary or secondary malpositions.
Conclusion: This large prospective study supports the increasing use of PICCs in adult oncology outpatients treated in specialized centers with chemotherapy for non-hematological malignancies. In this clinical setting, PICC failure occurred in 6% only of the inserted devices.
Keywords: Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters; chemotherapy; complications; failures rates; ultrasound guidance.