This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Bruce A. Friedman, MD; H. Clement Jurgeleit, MD
Ann Arbor, Mich

JAMA. 1968;203(13):1141-1142.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor:—

Embolic pieces of intravenous polyethylene catheters have been noted since Turner and Sommers¹ described a case in which a 4-cm fragment separated and lodged in the right atrium. Brown and Kent² recorded perforation of the right ventricle by a segment of a polyethylene catheter, and Johnson³ subsequently reported a similar perforation of the right atrium by a piece of tubing. Doering et al⁴ in a recent review cited 26 cases from the literature and added 23 additional patients in whom embolism of intravenous catheters occurred. One of the latter had perforation of the right atrium.

In the following patient there was perforation of the right atrium by an intact indwelling polyethylene catheter used jointly to monitor the central venous pressure and for intravenous fluid therapy. Death was related to hydropericardium produced by fluid conducted into the pericardial sac by the catheter.

Report of . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?