Chest-to-arm tunneling: A novel technique for medium/long term venous access devices

Chest-to-arm (CTA) tunneling has been described recently as a technique that allows an optimal exit site at mid-arm even in chronically ill patients with complex clinical issues and challenging problems of vascular access.

We adopted CTA tunneling in oncologic and in non-oncologic patients, in totally implanted and in external devices, for both medium and long-term intravenous treatments. We report our experience with 60 cases of CTA tunneling: 19 patients requiring a totally implantable device, who had bilateral contraindication to venous access at the arm and bilateral contraindication to placement of the pocket in the infra-clavicular area; 41 patients requiring an external central venous catheter, who had bilateral contraindication to insertion of peripherally inserted central catheters or femoral catheters, as well as contraindication to an exit site in the infraclavicular area. All venous access devices were inserted with ultrasound guidance and tip location by intracavitary electrocardiography, under local anesthesia.

There were no immediate or early complications. Patients with CTA-ports had no late complications. In patients with CTA-tunneled external catheters, there were two dislodgments, four episodes of central line associated blood stream infections, and one local infection. There were no episodes of venous thrombosis or catheter malfunction.

Our experience suggests that CTA tunneling is a safe maneuver, with very low risk of complications, and should be considered as an option in patients with complex venous access.