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Well it was after midnight before I got to my hotel in Atlanta so I didn't send this out last night. So day late but here it is. Thanks again to everyone that made the conference so great and for those of you who who threatened to beat me up if I didn't do this again this year. :-) TONY
Day 4 Pretty good start today: I got to sleep in a little bit. First session
was at The oral abstract presentations followed. These are presentations by authors of what was a poster presentation. Since they are short four were presented. All of them were very nicely done and informative. Dr. Roberto Biffi started out with “Catheter Related Central Venous
Thrombosis: The Development of a Nationwide Consensus Paper in
He was followed by another wondering speaker, Mary J Mang, RN, BSN,
The final two abstracts were presented by Marguerite Stats, MD, PhD. She
was from
Her abstract “Functional Comparison of Access Ports with a Classical Design vs. Tangential Outlet – A Single Center Prospective Randomized Study” took a look at implanted ports of these two designs. They examined several factors including flow rates on aspiration, reasons for removal and occlusion rates. Ports were examined post removal and the bowls visually inspected. The study had to be terminated early, due to staffing, so the sample size was smaller than they would have preferred. The statistically analysis found no significant advantage of one design over another. She then went on to the final abstract of the session, “Safety Concerns of Polyurethane Catheters Connected to Totally Implantable Venous Access Devices”. Silicone has a long standing record for safety in long term dwell. They began to notice problems or symptoms of stress with polyurethane catheters attached to implantable ports. They started to carefully examine and preserve all removed ports. The issue they noted most was stress cracking and fractures at the port/catheter junction. Notably one rupture at the pinch point of the Clavicle and first rib was reported. The stretching of the catheter over the port outlet, a normal part of port assembly, presumably may be a contributing factor to the problems. They noted ports with dwell times in excess of 700 days most often had evidence of damage, stress or fatigue while catheters with less than 500 did not. They have reported failures and potential failures to the manufacturer and encourage others to be vigilant and report any signs of failure or pending failure as we should with all devices. The inference is that there may need to be design changes in the port to catheter junction or further refinements in the polyurethane formulations. The traditional end of the conference is the lunch and town hall meeting. I am not sure what we ate but it was real yummy. And I am certain that it was not on my diet. At our table we ended up in a lively discussion about the issue brought up yesterday with blood cultures; to discard or not. We resolved that we really do not know what is right and desperately need well constructed studies in order to establish an evidenced based standard. The town hall meeting traditionally is a time to introduce the incoming
BOD and thank the outgoing. There is always some talk about our direction and
plans for the coming year as well as review of what has been accomplished. Did
you know Various awards were handed out including the poster awards and reader’s
choice awards. There is more information about these programs on the
There were two announcements that were very significant.
In order to facilitate this project financially and to fund research,
So after all that we had to say our final farewells,
travel safe and see you next year. For those of you to whom I have tried to give
a glimpse of the meeting I hope that you too will join us next year in
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