Ultrasonography Versus Chest X-Ray to Confirm Proper Placement of Central Venous Catheter

Central venous catheter (CVC) is located within the proximal third of the superior vena cava, inferior vena cava, or the right atrium. The confirmation of right location of catheter’s tip is done by chest X-ray (CXR) routinely.

In this study, we compared the proper location of the tip of the catheter by ultrasonography with CXR.

One hundred and seventeen patients were included in this study. The CVC was placed according to the underlying disease. The proper location of the catheter was checked by ultrasonography and then CXR was carried out. The results of both methods were recorded and finally the statistical analysis was performed for comparison.

The tip of the catheter was observed by ultrasonography in 111 patients, but in the six other ones, the tip of the catheter was not observed by ultrasonography and observed in CXR. Therefore, the sensitivity of ultrasonography was 94.9 % in this study.

The results showed that ultrasonography shows the catheter in 94.9% of the cases, although the risk of exposure to X-ray does not exist. The cost and time for evaluation of the tip of the catheter is significantly less by using ultrasonography compared to CXR.