Hickman catheter

Last revised by Calum Worsley on 21 Sep 2022

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Smith H, Worsley C, Jones J, et al. Hickman catheter. Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 19 Apr 2024) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-60181

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-60181

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/60181

rID:

60181

Article created:

11 May 2018, Hamish Smith

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Hamish Smith had no recorded disclosures.

View Hamish Smith's current disclosures

Last revised:

21 Sep 2022, Calum Worsley ◉

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Calum Worsley had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Calum Worsley's current disclosures

Revisions:

9 times, by 6 contributors - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Vascular, Interventional, Oncology

Sections:

Interventional Radiology

Synonyms:

Hickman line

Hickman catheters (or Hickman lines) are a type of tunneled central venous access line.

Hickman catheters are typically inserted into either jugular vein, and the proximal tubing is tunneled through the subcutaneous tissues to a skin incision on the chest. The distal part of the catheter therefore follows the normal course of a jugular venous catheter, with its tip in the region of the superior cavoatrial junction. The proximal end of the catheter projects over the chest in the subcutaneous tissues, and the connector hubs may or may not be visible depending on how they have been moved to acquire the radiograph.

Indications

chemotherapy administration ²
parenteral nutrition ²
long-term parenteral antibiotic administration ²

Complications

Insertion

arrhythmia (most common) ¹
arterial injury
kinking
pneumothorax
failure

Long-term

infection (most common) ^1,2
occlusion, commonly due to fibrin sheath formation
thrombosis
tip migration

History and etymology

In the late 1970s, Robert O Hickman (1926-2019) ⁴, was a Fellow in pediatric nephrology, at the University of Washington in Seattle. He was asked by the bone marrow transplant nurses to create a new catheter for their patients. He modified the then widely-used Broviac catheter to create the Hickman catheter. The only difference was one of size, at that time the Broviac catheter was a 6.5 French gauge (Fr) catheter, whilst the original Hickman catheter was 9.6 Fr ³.