Figure 6.

Cuffed catheter removal. (a) An incision has been made over the venous end of the anchoring cuff. Blunt dissection with artery forceps has allowed the catheter and its covering fibrous sheath to be brought to the skin surface. A very superficial longitudinal incision in this sheath reveals the white silicone catheter. (b) The catheter can be pulled from the sheath and out from the vein. Pressure is applied to allow clot to block the tract leading to the vein. (c) The cuff can then be freed with sharp dissection using small scissors. The concept is to minimise sharp dissection until the catheter is out of the vein to avoid catheter damage and loss centrally as a catheter embolus (see Figure 7).