Right Atrial Catheters in Pediatric Oncology: A Patient/Parent Questionnaire Study

Venous access devices are an option offered to pediatric oncology patients to make their frequent blood sampling and intravenous therapy more tolerable. To determine the advantages and disadvantages of using these devices, a study comparing Mediport and Broviac catheters was conducted from August 1985 to August 1987 at The Children's Hospital, Denver, Colorado. This report will analyze results of the patient-parent acceptance questionnaire employed in that study. Overall, both the patients and their parents were very positive about the devices. Daily care of the Broviac and pain associated with accessing the Mediport were the only uniformly negative factors we encountered. These problems became unimportant when compared to the advantage of eliminating peripheral venipuncture.