The central venous catheter (Quinton) was replaced in the right atrium for chemotherapy and blood sampling to a eight-year old girl with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
The catheter was flushed with heparin two times daily and the chemotherapeutic drug regimens by CCSG-105 protocol were vincristine, prednisone, L-asparaginase, aunomycin, methotrexate, cyclophosphamide, cytosine, cytosine arabinoside, 6-mercaptopurine and adriamycin. On day 31 of catheterization, the lumen for blood sampling was blocked. From day 60 of catheterization, anorexia, nausea, vomiting, abdominal distension and tachypnea were developed. Echocardiogram, lung scan, pulmonary function test(PFT), arterial blood gas analysis (ABGA) were done. Two cemtimeters in diameter of thrombosis was found in the right atrium on echocardiogram. The lung scan showed slight decrease in uptake of Tc-oom on the whole lung fields. Restrictive ventratory impairment on PFT and decreased PaO2(48 mmHg) on ABGA were found. To lysis of thromboembolism, urokinase (4,400 IU/kg for initial 10 minutes and the 4,400 IU/kg for 12 hours) was injected intravenously and aspirin(30 mg/kg/d, po) was given. The thrombosis was disappeared from the atrium on echocardiogram and PaO2 was increased up to 97 mmHg temporary. The catheter was removed but total haziness on the right middle and lower lobes were developed after 5 days. The same dose of urokinase was injected just infront of the embolism through Pitfall catheter for 8 days intermittently as results of pulmonary angiography. Symptoms and PaO2 were alleviated and the lung was expanded with mild atelectasis on day 55 of the first fibrinolytic enzyme therapy. Although the frequent complications of central venous catheter are catheter occlusion and infection, we have to check the development of thromboembolism with echocardiogram periodically of in case of unexplained respiratory symptoms.
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