Hickman catheter

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

Indications

chemotherapy administration
parenteral nutrition
long-term parenteral antibiotic administration

Complications

Insertion

arrhythmia (most common)
arterial injury
kinking
pneumothorax
failure

Long-term

infection (most common)
occlusion
thrombosis
tip migration

History and etymology

In the late 1970s, Robert O Hickman (1926-2019) , 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 .