There has been an explosion of interest in the area of central venous catheterisation
with an estimated 250,000 such procedures annually in the UK alone. The traditional
use of catheters in anaesthesia, critical care, surgery and acute medicine continues, and
there is also a rapidly increasing requirement for medium or longer-term central venous
catheterisation for parenteral nutrition, cancer chemotherapy, prolonged antibiotics
and other interventions. A wide variety of different professionals are involved with the
insertion, care and removal of such devices.
This title was conceived to fill a gap in information related to central venous catheterisation.
There is a huge amount of information available from multiple sources often
in the form of small case series, case reports, institutional clinical protocols and other
anecdotal information, together with an increasing number of randomised controlled
trials to guide practice. However, there are relatively few books either in the UK or
worldwide covering this topic in any depth. Available books tend to be either rather
basic or very specialised, relating to interventional radiology or other disciplines. We
have aimed with this publication to provide a reasonably detailed account of most clinical
applications of central venous catheters. It is hoped the book will provide useful
guidance for both consultants and trainees in medical disciplines and the increasing
number of nurses and other professionals involved in this area. Unlike other books, we
have tried to give as much emphasis on patient assessment, aftercare and management
of catheters as we have on the original insertion procedures. Other issues which are
often ignored in other books like removal and infection are also extensively covered.
We thank all our authors and the publishers for their time and commitment in making
this book come together and would welcome any feedback from interested readers.