but it requires weekly dressing changes and daily flushes. As do most PICC lines. It lasted about 15 months before it had to pulled due to an infection. It was a pain because his skin couldn't handle the cleaning solutions nor the bandages anymore. Plus it would always have some level of bleeding around the entry site.

You probably want to look at the port-a-cath. There's no maintenance on your part and less likely to get infected since it's enclosed in your skin. That's what was recommended to him as a replacement for the Hickman since he no longer needed the "double Lumen" to administer multiple drugs and blood products. But he chose not to replace it.


http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/co...emotherapy.asp