Comparison Between Open and Ultrasonography Guided Venous Access Ports in Children with Malignancy

Long-term central venous access is used in children for various reasons specially for delivering chemotherapy. Since vessels in children have smaller diameters, they are more prone to injury and complications such as thrombosis. Different methods are used for implantation of port-a-cath in children. We aimed to compare the complications of insertion of central venous access ports between two methods of open and ultrasound (US) guided. 

All children who were referred to pediatric surgery department of a children hospital from April 2018 to March 2020 for implantation of port-a-cath were included. Right jugular vein was the target vein and patients were randomly divided between two methods of insertion of open lateral neck exploration and ultrasound real-time guided percutaneous insertion and the reservoir was fixed in subpectoral fascia pouch. All open cases in which jugular vein was ligated proximally were excluded. Patients were followed up for early and late complications two days and one week later by the surgical team, then monthly by a trained nurse and were referred to the surgeon if any complication or malfunction had occurred for at least 6 months.

We included 76 patients (21 girls and 55 boys) less than 18 years of age: 24 patients with ultrasound guided method (1-13 years, median 3 years) and 52 patients with open exploration method (4 months-17 years, median 6 years). We observed no statistically significant difference between two groups with respect to sex, underlying disease, and complications. Most patients had hematological malignancies including ALL (52.9%), AML (19.1%) and the rest had solid organ malignancies. Early complications were observed in 2 (3.8%) in the open and 1 (4.2%) in the US- guided group (P=1). Late complications were observed in 9 (17.3%) patients in the open group and 1 (4.2%) in the US guided group. Infection was observed in 9.6% and malfunction in 5.8% of the open group leading to earlier removal of the catheter. There was not any complication indicative of infection in the US-guided group.

US-guided method can be suggested for routine use as a safe method of insertion of port venous access in children.