If access is an issue for you, don't miss the promising new solutions Dr. Lang describes in the article below. In addition to her practice at Beth Israel Deaconess in Boston, she is an Associate Professor of Radiology and Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lang's talk from last year's Oley conference is available from the Oley Videotape Library.
Most readers are probably already familiar with an interventional radiologist.
For those who aren't, interventional radiologists are physicians who perform minimally invasive surgery by using x-rays or other imaged guidance to advance their instruments within the body through small skin openings. Imaged guidance can help homePEN consumers preserve their access by allowing the interventional radiologist to accurately assess the status of the consumer's venous system and that of any indwelling catheters. If needed, patency of veins can be restored to permit the placement of a new catheter. Following is a brief description of how interventional radiologists preserve and create vascular access. When a fibrin sheath forms around the tip of the catheter it can adhere to the wall of the superior vena cava, and make it difficult for the consumer to aspirate blood or infuse through the catheter.