Safety of Bedside Placement of Tunneled Hemodialysis Catheters In The Intensive Care Unit: Translating From The Covid-19 Experience – Retrospective Single-Center Case Series

Abstract

\n Background: Critically-ill patients with coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) and kidney dysfunction often require tunneled hemodialysis catheter (TDC) placement for kidney replacement therapy (KRT), typically under fluoroscopic guidance to minimize catheter-related complications. This entails transportation of patients outside the intensive care unit (ICU) to a fluoroscopy suite, which may potentially expose many healthcare providers to COVID-19. One potential strategy to mitigate the risk of viral transmission is to insert TDCs at the bedside, using ultrasound (US) and anatomic landmarks only, without fluoroscopic guidance. Methods: We reviewed all COVID-19 patients in the ICU who underwent right internal jugular (RIJ) TDC insertion at the bedside between April and December 2020. Outcomes included procedural complications such as bleeding, venous air embolism, arrhythmias, pneumothorax and catheter tip malposition. TDC insertion was considered successful if the catheter was able to achieve blood flow sufficient to perform a single hemodialysis treatment. Results: We report a retrospective single-center case series of 25 patients with COVID-19 who had RIJ TDCs placed at the bedside, 10 of whom underwent simultaneous insertion of small-bore RIJ tunneled central venous catheters (T-CVC). Continuous veno-venous hemodialysis was the KRT modality employed in all patients. A median catheter blood flow rate of 200 ml/min (IQR:200-200) was achieved in all patients without any deviation from the dialysis prescription. No catheter-related complications were observed and none of the catheter tips were mal-positioned. Conclusions: Bedside RIJ TDC placement in COVID-19 patients, using US and anatomic landmarks without fluoroscopic guidance, may potentially reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission amongst healthcare workers without compromising patient safety or catheter function.