[Central venous catheterization with an incorporated J-wire and contamination protective sleeves for rapid venous catheterization of the external jugular vein].

The external jugular vein can easily be identified in most patients and provides an alternative access to the superior vena cava. Unfortunately, advancement of the catheter may be hampered for anatomical reasons, e.g. the presence of valves. Use of a flexible guide-wire with curved tip (J-wire), as first proposed by Blitt et al., results in a significant increase in the rate of successful cannulations. This method necessitates tedious surgical draping, however, that may not always be practicable. Therefore, a catheter was developed that is wrapped in a protective sleeve and contains a J-wire instead of the common plastic mandrin, thus making contamination during insertion impossible.