With our indwelling catheters for recurrent pleural effusion and ascites, you can easily provide patients with symptom relief and quality of life. The patient can be discharged from the hospital on the same day as the catheter implantation. The patient can then easily drain the fluid themselves at home, or with the help of relatives or home health care.

This form of treatment restores the patient’s quality of life, effectively relieves symptoms and at the same time reduces the burden on hospital resources.

These points should be discussed with your patient during an information session before catheter insertion.

Are you planning to insert an indwelling catheter for drainage of pleural effusion or ascites? Then we have some suggested routines to help you prepare for the procedure.

Implanting the catheter is a minimally invasive procedure. The catheter then allows the patient to drain recurrent pleural effusion and ascites without hospitalisation. The treatment thus improves the patient’s quality of life, effectively relieves symptoms and reduces hospital costs and resource use.

Here is a step-by-step overview of recommended implantation, with examples of implantation for pleural effusion.

The catheter ID card is a requirement under the new Medical Devices Directive (MDR), which came nto force in May 2021. An indwelling catheter counts as an implant and an implantation card must accompany the product. So we call the implantation card a catheter ID card. It enhances patient safety and contains all important information about the catheter to be implanted. This allows patients and physicians to trace the product back to the manufacturer. In case of complications or emergencies, relevant medical information about the patient and the catheter can be found in the ID card, as well as the right contact person.

There are various options for implantation products and catheter drainage accessories. A quick overview of these and other accessories can be found here.

Detailed drainage instructions and information about our drainage sets can be found in the document Information for physicians and healthcare professionals (Swedish) or in the IFU. We also recommend a free training before you get your first patient, please contact us!

Patients with an indwelling catheter for drainage of pleural effusion and ascites should have the dressing changed at least twice a week. Want to see how to change the dressing? No problem, we’ve compiled instructions for changing dressing.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us in person.

If the patient is discharged to a home health care provider, they may need the following information.

Did you implant a catheter due to recurrent pleural effusion or ascites and now you can discharge the patient from hospital. What happens now?

To ensure a smooth discharge, we have put together some information to consider in this discharge process.

Depending on the viscosity of the pleural or ascites fluid, it may occasionally be necessary to flush the catheter. This is only done if you think it is occluded to restore the flow. Only a physician, or a nurse on the order of a physician, may flush the catheter and this is done using aseptic technique.

When there is less than 50 ml of fluid in three consecutive drainage sessions, one of the following examples may be the reason:

• The course of the patient’s disease means that no more ascites or pleural effusion is accumulated.
• A pleurodesis has occurred.
• The catheter is in a pocket without fluid.
• There’s an occlusion in the catheter. If this cannot be remedied by flushing, the catheter can be removed.

If you need to remove the catheter for any reason, we recommend the following procedure: