Monitoring of central venous dual-lumen catheter placement in haemodialysis: improvement of a technique for the practising nephrologist.

Mismanagement in the placement of central venous catheter (CVC) may occur in up to 20% of cases. The catheter can be inadvertently placed in the contralateral brachiocephalic vein, the ipsi or contralateral internal jugular vein, and usually a thoracic radiograph is necessary to evaluate its location. We propose a technique first described by Serafini et al. to establish the position of a CVC by endocavitary electrocardiography (EC-ECG) and its employment in a large number of uraemic patients requiring haemodialysis. This technique uses the tip of the CVC as reference lead in a standard electrocardiograph. The best employment of this technique has been obtained by echotomographic visualization of the internal jugular vein executed just before transcutaneous puncture of the vessel. For 13 months we have successfully applied this technique in CVC placement in 81 patients requiring haemodialysis. In our opinion this method is a safe and simple technique that avoids the need for thoracic radiographs and time lost waiting for radiographs that prolong the start of the haemodialysis session. According to our experience, we confirm that the EC-ECG technique provides a method for ensuring compliance with Food and Drug Administration guidelines regarding catheter tip location in uraemic patients.