UTILITY OF THE ROUTINE CHEST-X-RAY AFTER OVER-WIRE VENOUS CATHETER CHANGES

The Seldinger technique is commonly used to change central venous acce ss catheters in the Intensive Care Unit. These catheters are routinely being changed to prevent septic complications. Some of these changes are performed by an ''over-wire'' technique, To assess the utility of postprocedural chest X-rays on critically ill patients after an over-w ire catheter change, we followed 68 patients after they had 80 cathete r changes, This study assesses catheter position by use of a postproce dural X-ray. During the study, we found no misplaced catheters and min imum symptomatology in 80 patients. The trauma/critical care fellows p erforming the procedures rated them as easy in 97.5 percent of the cha nges. The conclusion of the study is that, if the catheter change is t echnically easy and the patient has no symptoms, a postprocedural X-ra y is not necessary.