Groshong PICC and home care: an opportunity. Clinical experience after the first 200 implants.

Peripherally Inserted Central Catheters (PICC) represent an alternative for critical patient care, and are safer to implant in home patients. The authors report on their experience with the first 200 4 Fr Groshong PICC implanted during the last 18 months. The procedure can be easily applied at home (98% successful implant rate), without the need for fluoroscopic or ultrasound guidance. Moreover, the authors believe that the X-ray control after implant is not strictly necessary. After 11,570 days/catheters, only 5 devices were explanted because of complications: 4 because of sepsis and peripheral phlebitis, and the last was explanted by another medical staff for unclear reasons. The complications needing no explanation were a total of 32: for 12 of them the external portion of tube was damaged during use, while for the other 20 the internal clots were resolved with forced flushing. The authors conclude that Groshong PICC can be considered the gold standard for home care management of critical patients, taking into account the quality of pure silicon, the presence of a valve and the specially-made closed-tip.