Question of the Week

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Question :

Posted On : 23 Aug 2020

Umbilical venous cath put but x-ray shows it arterial how can this happen?

Expert Answer :

Answer Discussion :

S

sameh abdelaziz

0

technical error

4 years ago

F

fadi yaycili

0

Umbilical vessels anomaly

4 years ago

M

M W HAQUE

0

by mistake..can be error

4 years ago

R

Ravi Goyal

0

catheter could have been inseted into arterial opening ? technical error

4 years ago

N

Nishant Singh

0

send for blood gas and confirm its it's arterial then arteial only

4 years ago

Answer 1

This is an uncommon occurrence in neonatal units but it does occur occasionally. It is possible due to a wrong assessment of the umbilical vessel wall thickness and the lumen during insertion of the catheter. An arterial lumen if relatively wide can be mistaken for a vein and maybe catheterized. But the detection of an arterial catheter is obvious by the speed of the backflow of blood through the arterial catheter as well as the bright red color of the blood sample as compared to a venous sample. Further, the blood gas analysis would be atypical of the venous sample especially with regards to the PO2 and SpO2 values.
If the arterial catheter is not necessary it should be removed slowly allowing time for the artery to contract and thus avoid bleeding post-removal which could be troublesome in small neonates and should be carefully observed for at least a few hours.

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