Central venous port catheters: evaluation of patients' satisfaction with implantation under local anesthesia

Evaluation of pain perception and patient satisfaction after implantation of a central venous port catheter system under local anesthesia.

A total of 100 consecutive patients (25 outpatients, 75 inpatients) who underwent successful implantation of a port catheter into the internal jugular vein from May through August 2007 were given an 8-item questionnaire. The extent of information about the implantation, the pain perception during implantation and the friendliness of the physician and nurse were evaluated. Furthermore, the patients were asked to assess their degree of anxiety and the pain they experienced during the intervention and to give an appraisal of whether local anesthesia was adequate. Each question was assessed on a 10-point scale (10 = very true to 1 = not at all true). In addition, the overall duration of the intervention (including patient preparation, implantation, patient aftercare, disinfection of the room) was documented.

Patients felt highly satisfied with the way they were informed (mean score of 9.65) and considered the treating physician (9.89) and nurse (9.9) extremely friendly. Local anesthesia was rated as nearly completely adequate (9.56) and the degree of pain experienced was low (9.05; 10 = no pain). The average anxiety score was 8.56 (10 = not afraid at all). Overall satisfaction with the treatment was very high (9.62; outpatients: 9.72) and patients would recommend port catheter implantation at our department to others (9.77). The mean overall duration of the intervention was 76 min (range 40-120 min).

Positive patient reactions indicate that radiologic port catheter implantation under local anesthesia is a minimally invasive intervention with high patient satisfaction that can be performed on an outpatient basis and is a valid alternative to surgical implantation.