The purpose of this study was to analyze the factors that affect the longevity of central venous catheters.
Comprehensive clinical data recorded during insertion and removal of totally implantable devices (TID) and tunneled lines (TL) from October 1988 to January 2009 were analyzed. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to identify clinical factors that predict catheter longevity.
Information was available for 1167 central venous catheter insertions in 858 patients, 648 TID and 509 TL. Univariate analysis detected longer device longevity in the following: TID longer than TL (P