Anybody treat a patient with an implanted medical port?

[djaychris]

I am going to be diving a pt who has a "BardPort Implanted Port". Its basically an implanted medical port in the right subclavian region. The manufacturer has no documentation saying whether this device is safe for hyperbarics or not. They did say that this device is very similar to PICC lines and other central venous catheters. I regularly treat patients with PICC lines in the chamber. Does anybody have any experience with treating a patient who has a port like this? The company recommended that I access and flush the port prior to every treatment to make sure there is no air in it. This doesn't seem like the best option to me, as it will be both painful as well as an infection risk for the pt. The patient is going to be recieving 30 treatments total.

-Any thoughts?