Totally implantable central venous catheters are widely used in the management of patients with haematological or malignant disease. This paper investigates device-related complications and compares it with the literature. A total of 143 Port-a-Caths (PaCs) were implanted in 140 patients at a single centre during 2004 and followed until March 2005. Indication for implantation was mainly administration of chemotherapy. High standards of care were applied through intensive training of staff. Complications were registered prospectively and cross-checked with the medical records at the end of the observational period. The ports were in place for a total of 29 107 days (mean 204, range 3-443 days per port). A total of 25 complications were recorded. These included 13 infections [9.1% with 5 cutaneous (3.5%) and 8 systemic (5.6%) infections], one deep vein thrombosis (0.7%). In 6 patients (4.2%) the device had to be removed because of complications. No device-related death was observed. The use of totally implantable central venous catheters for treating haemoto-oncological patients is safe. The need for device removal due to complications was particularly low in this analysis as compared with the literature.

Abstract. Background Gastric cancer is still one of the leading causes of death from intestinal neoplasias. Survival of patients with gastric cancer is poor with an overall 5-year survival rate of less than 20%, and gastric cancer should be viewed as systemic disease even at early stages. Second-generation treatment regimens show a response rate between 21% and 27% with a median survival of 6 to 8 months (1). However, chemotherapy has shown to provide a significant benefit in the quantity and quality of life over best supportive care alone. Whilst no combination treatment regimen is recognized as standard for gastric cancer, continuous infusion of 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) or oral 5-FU prodrugs combined with cisplatin or oxaliplatin is currently considered as reference treatment worldwide in HER-2 negative gastric cancer (2). Several agents have recently emerged as potential new options for advanced gastric cancer. The triple combination of 5-FU with cisplatin or oxaliplatin and docetaxel is one of the most effective treatments but shows considerable toxicity (3).Two cytotoxic compounds with different mechanisms of action and lack of cross-resistance between them have been proven clinically active in the treatment of advanced 5553 This article is freely accessible online.

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