A method to overcome the inability to draw blood from central venous linesin children

The insertion of central venous catheters has become an established practic e in the management of children with different types of malignancies for th e administration of chemotherapeutic agents, antibiotics, blood and blood p roducts, as well as drawing blood for various investigations. A commonly en countered problem is that despite the catheter being patent it may be impos sible to draw blood from it. We believe this is related to the cut of the c atheter tip. To overcome this problem, a technique for cutting the tip of t he catheter is described.