THE DEMERS ATRIAL CATHETER - EXPERIENCE WITH A SINGLE-LUMEN SILICONE CATHETER AS SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM ACCESS FOR HEMODIALYSIS

The Demers catheter is a silicone atrial catheter with a dacron cuff u sed as short- and long-term access for hemodialysis. It was implanted in 316 patients between January 1, 1987 through May 31, 1991. Data on these implantations were retrospectively analyzed and are reported her e. Follow-up and analysis was possible in 404 of 417 Demers catheter i mplantations. The mean age of patients in this study was 61 years. For short-term. use (<91 days) 153 catheters were implanted in 135 patien tes, for long-term use (>90 days) 251 catheters in 181 patients. The m edian life span of all 404 catheters was 87 days, The median life span for long-term use was 150 days (2-1302) per catheter and 220 days (92 -1717) per patient. Catheter malfunction (arterial blood flow <200 mi) was encountered every 876 days in the running time of the catheter. T wenty percent (n = 80) of the catheters were explanted because of comp lications. These included 42 cases of catheter malfunction and 22 case s of infection.