INSERTION OF THE PICC CATHETER:
PICC catheter is a quite easy method especially in the patient group who have difficulty in finding vascular access. Trying to enter the thin veins blindly in patients with vascular problems is a situation that both healthcare professionals and patients hate. The PICC catheter, which is frequently used in such cases in developed countries such as the USA, is unfortunately little known in most of the countries. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Mahir ATASOY helped Maltepe University Faculty of Medicine was defined as a center that can teach physicians about PICC catheter placement by obtaining a “Center of Excellence” certificate after the approval of the team from Canada.
The PICC catheter is inserted in every hospitalized patient in the world who will stay longer than 3 days, and patients with vascular access do not have any problems. The catheter is a vascular access, with the only difference being that it is painlessly inserted into a larger-diameter vein in the upper part of the arm under ultrasound guidance, and its tip is advanced to the larger veins.
In this way, many drugs given intravenously are prevented from damaging the veins. For example, if some antibiotics given intravenously are given through a vein in the forearm or hand, they will destroy that vein, in fact, this is malpractice. Drugs that can damage the vein called irritant or vesicant must be given into a large and central vein so that it mixes with the blood without damaging the vein.
The PICC catheter is currently mostly used in Oncology patients in our country. In fact, its use should be much more in both oncology patients and non-oncology patients. As it can be preferred instead of PORT catheter, PICC catheter should be inserted in oncology patients who do not have port inserted. Because most of the chemotherapy drugs have the properties, we call irritant and vesicant, and if they are given through thin veins, they damage the veins very much. Although conscious oncology doctors put this catheter in from the very beginning, some oncology specialists demand this catheter to be inserted when the nurses have difficulty in finding a vein after the veins of the error are damaged. In this regard, they may be considering the patient’s economic situation.
My advice to you is if you are an oncology patient and have not had a PORT inserted, make sure you have your PICC catheter inserted to prevent damage to your vessels.