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Discussion

Tricky portocath

So I am an ER RN who recently started doing home infusions. I have only been dealing with ports for about a year now so I’m no expert but there is one patient who I can’t figure out. The PT is on third portocath in one year and all three ports have had their own issues. This newest one has started to move around, into shoulder and lower on chest. I can no longer get blood return. I’ve tried the tricks such as coughing and raising their arms. What would cause a brand new port to move around and become dislodged? This port is accessed twice weekly.

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    IMPLANTED PORTS are sutured into a subcutaneous pocket. If these sutures broke, the port will travel under the skin and be hard to pin down. The MD should go in and fix this problem. Now lack of blood return could mean that the IV catheter has been severed from the ports body. This given the situation, would not be uncommon. Do not use this port. It must be surgically fixed. The lack of blood return also could be from fibrin buildup, so just how recently was it placed, and is the patient hypercoagulable?

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