Perforation by central venous catheters: a new testament to an old test

Perforation by central venous catheters into the extravascular space is a rare complication of central venous lines that may explain new onset shortness of breath in hospitalized patients. We found that lowering bottles containing infusate and looking for return of venous blood is a highly specific test for this problem. Using Bayes' Theorem we calculated that for prior probabilities of catheter perforation of 0.01 and 0.05, corresponding posterior probabilities ranged from 0.1 to 0.15 and 0.35 to 0.49 respectively. This test should be used in all patients with new shortness of breath who have central venous catheters.