How is a portacath used?
The oncology nurse can locate the portal between his/her fingers. To administer treatment or to withdraw blood, the skin over the port is sterilized. The port is accessed by puncturing through the overlying skin with a Huber needle. The needle is specially designed so that it will not damage the silicone septum. Blood is sucked back to check if the port is functioning normally. Next, the portacath will be flushed with saline. Then, treatment will begin. After each use, the port is flushed with saline followed by dilute heparin to prevent clotting. How is a portacath implanted? The procedure is performed under local anaesthetic, with the aid of imaging guidance (ultrasound and X-ray) in the angiography suite of radiology department. The actual procedure takes less than an hour. An intravenous sedation is given to make the local anaethetic injection less painful. There will be a skin incision 3cm long on the chest wall for the port pocket and a 5mm incision in the lower neck to enter the
