Umbilical venous cannulation is the favored approach to perinatal central access worldwide but has a failure rate of 25-50% and the insertion technique has not evolved in decades. Improving the success of this procedure would have broad implications, particularly where peripherally inserted central catheters are not easily obtained and in neonates with congenital heart disease, in whom umbilical access facilitates administration of inotropes and blood products while sparing vessels essential for later cardiac interventions. We sought to use real-time, point-of-care ultrasound to achieve central umbilical venous access in patients for whom conventional, blind placement techniques had failed.

Central venous access, a common and essential component of the care of the critically ill neonate, is associated with complications such as infection, thrombosis, and bleeding. Unintentional arterial cannulation of a venous catheter is a rare but potentially dangerous complication. In the report, we describe the accidental cannulation of an artery with an epicutaneo-caval catheter in an extremely low birth weight infant. We discuss the physical and radiological findings that raise the suspicion of an arterial placement of a catheter, the diagnostic tools to confirm the misplacement, the potential complications, and strategies to prevent it.

No abstract