Diagnosis of unexplained bleeding from tunneled dialysis catheter

Bleeding after hemodialysis catheter placement is commonly seen and can hap pen because of anticoagulation, poor platelet function in dialysis patients , and trauma to the vessel and tunnel tract during placement. We wish to pr esent here two cases of prolonged exist site bleeding with tunneled dialysi s catheters (SchonCath dialysis catheter, Angio-Dynamics, Queensbury, N.Y.) due to unsuspected catheter leak within the tunneled portion of the cathet er, which was identified with angiogram. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, B asel.