Safety of Catheter Lock With or Without Heparin in Implanted Central Venous Catheters
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2011-06-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Long-term central venous access devices are considered as safe for the administration of
medication as chemotherapy, but are also used for blood sampling. For years these catheters
have been locked with a heparin solution in order to avoid occlusion. However, no scientific
evidence supports heparin locking when the device is not in use. Advanced technology as
needleless caps and valved catheters and port reservoirs confirms this trend to use 'saline
only' for locking these devices. Therefore the investigators hypothesize is that there will
be no difference in proportion of occlusions and catheter related bacteremia in long-term
venous access devices locked with 'saline only' versus with heparin.