Transdiaphragmatic tunneled Broviac catheters: Cost-effective perioperative central venous access in infants...

Infants undergoing congenital heart surgery require central venous lines which can be achieved by various combinations of transthoracic lines, percutaneous-indwelling central catheters and tunneled Broviac catheters. Transthoracic lines are removed by protocol prior to cardiac intensive care unit discharge (risk of bleeding), at which time percutaneous-indwelling central catheters are placed. Transdiaphragmatic tunneled Broviac catheters placed at the time of sternotomy, remain in place until hospital discharge, when they are safely removed at bedside. We characterized actual cost profiles associated with strategies that do versus do not include tunneled Broviac catheters.

From January 2014 to December 2016, we identified a study population of 220 consecutive patients under 1 year of age undergoing congenital heart surgery. Cost data were acquired from our electronic patient system interface database and office of finance. Our cohort was divided into 2 groups, tunneled Broviac catheter and nontunneled Broviac catheter. We calculated the total cost associated with each groups' central venous lines, propensity matched, and used the Mann-Whitney U test to analyze the results.

Eighty-three (37.7%) of the 220 patients had tunneled Broviac catheters. The tunneled Broviac catheter group had 4 percutaneous-indwelling central catheter insertions and 6 radiological interventions while the nontunneled Broviac catheter group had 90 percutaneous-indwelling central catheters and 203 radiologic interventions. After propensity score matching, both groups were reduced to 82 patients and sum, median and interquartile range cost for tunneled Broviac catheters and nontunneled Broviac catheters was $17,351.84, $159.76 (128-159.76) versus $72,809.32, $1277.26 (31.76-1277.26), P < .02 respectively.

Tunneled Broviac catheters, placed routinely at cardiac surgery, incur lower costs than the conventional combination of transthoracic lines and percutaneous-indwelling central catheters. The cost-effectiveness is achieved by reducing the number of percutaneous-indwelling central catheters and associated radiologic interventions.