Large catheters, small veins raise thrombosis risk for cancer patients
A world-first study led by the University of South Australia has found that cancer patients receiving chemotherapy intravenously have more than double the risk of developing a blood clot or thrombosis if the vein is too small and the catheter occupies more than 45 per cent of the vein.
The finding, published in the
British Medical Journal Open, is the first time that catheter-vein ratios (CVRs) have been studied in different patient groups to determine the risk of thrombosis depending on how much the catheter obstructs blood flow.
Cancer itself (especially leukaemia and other blood cancers) and the chemotherapy used to treat it both increase thrombosis risk, and the catheters increase this risk even further if blood flow is restricted, according to Dr Rebecca Sharp, a UniSA vascular access device researcher who led the study.