Totally implantable catheters for cancer chemotherapy: French experience on 325 cases

325 implantable catheters (PAC) were successfully used for treatment of 310 patients with neoplastic diseases in 21 French medical centers. 263 were placed in central venous sites; 43 in the hepatic artery and 11 in intra-portal sites. There was no failure at insertion time nor was there any death attributable to the method. While average duration of catheterization was 182 days, 72 catheters remain patent after one year of use or longer. Occlusion risk was found to be 3.6%: 1.5% for IV sites and 13.9% for intra-arterial sites (due to smaller inner diameter). 2.4% of the implantations showed cutaneous necrosis and in 2.7% sepsis occurred. Sepsis was much more likely to occur after percutaneous insertions. These results support the use of this device for long term chemotherapy.