Portacath question

i was an iv therapist for a number of years and had a number of patient's with port-a-caths. your facility or pharmacy service should have a policy and procedure on how to change a huber needle. i've been trying to find some good pictures on internet websites for you so you can see what these huber needles look like. i haven't been working as a clinical nurse for a couple of years and i see that safety features have been developed on some of these needles to prevent accidental needle sticks. a huber needle is basically a steel needle with a beveled tip that is bent at a 90 degree angle. that's probably the "hook" you are referring to. there are some huber devices that have steel needle introducers with flexible cannulas; the steel is withdrawn once the plastic cannula is placed in the port. when you take the needle out of a port you need to stabilize the edge of the port with the fingers of your one hand (hold the edges of it down) while pulling the needle out with the other hand. to insert the huber needle you prep the skin like you would for any iv insertion. use your fingers to palpate and locate where the center of the port is without touching the skin you prepped. again, you stabilize the port and the skin with the fingers of one hand. the ports are in a subcutanous pocket so they can (and will) slide around, particularly the skin, if not stabilized when you are ready to perform the puncture. aim the beveled tip of the needle straight down (it's already pointed downward anyway) and push it down as far as it will go until you feel it hit something hard. that hard thing it hits is the back part of the metal reservoir of the implanted port. you'll see that in some of the drawings of the websites i found for you. tape the needle, place your dressing, connect your tubings and you're good to go.

if you know the manufacturer of the needle, call them or one of their sales reps and ask if they have any information they can give you on the insertion of the needle. most of the patients should have been given a patient brochure that came with the port insertion kit. their hospital chart will also contain information about the exact device that was inserted in their surgical record. bard, who makes the port-a-cath, has some educational pamphlets or videos that they may share with you. their customer service number is 1-800-545-0890. i would call and ask.

• http://www.isips.org/reports/articles/safety_huber_needles_article.html - an article with information about the various manufactures of huber needles. has photos.
  
• http://www.hemophilia.org/resources/nurses/imagelibrarynurses6.htm - photos of huber needle insertion and removal
  
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/port-a-cath - has links at the bottom of the page to a video of a port being accessed as well as information about the port-a-cath. it also mentions the major manufactures of these devices. the link to the bard port-a-cath is a patient information booklet and only has a couple of nice drawings of what the device looks like--no huber needle.
  
• http://portadvantage.com/ - bard port advantage website for nurses and patients who care for or have implanted ports - this is a gateway to educational resources. click on the nurses info.
  
• http://portadvantage.com/documents/bard-patient-info-bro.pdf - the 2005 version of the bard patient information brochure on iv ports.
  
• https://www.springnet.com/ce/p204a.htm - "getting a line on central vascular access devices". covers the basics on tunneled and non-tunneled cvads, piccs and implanted ports as well as troubleshooting complications.