Removal of the venous access device

Once treatment is complete, the question of port removal arises. Patients' positions vary - some want the port and the memory of the disease removed as soon as possible, others want to keep it, just in case.

Properly handled ports have been maintained for many years. It is important to remember, however, that this is a foreign body whose properties can change over a long period of time to an unpredictable extent. No manufacturer recommends keeping ports longer than medically justified, and in the event of distant complications, they cannot be held liable for compensation.

Every foreign body, and a port is such, poses some risk of adverse reactions and complications. Part of what we call a port is in a blood vessel for many months or even years. This risk is small in the case of ports, but it is there. The advantages of using a port during cancer treatment are incomparably greater than the risk of a complication. That's when it's worth having a port. However, when it is after treatment and observation, and P.T. Oncology colleagues do not plan to act with the use of the port, then the advantages are no longer there, but there is still a small but nevertheless real risk of complications. Therefore, the port should be removed after the end of the treatment and observation period.

A referral for port removal surgery:

• must be issued to the hospital's department of surgery (department code 4500),
  
  
• must contain the following information:
  purpose of referral: removal of foreign body from skin and subcutaneous tissue with incision 86.054,
  
  
• rationale: e.g., completion of chemotherapy.

Removal of the port, like implantation, is carried out by me under general anesthesia (known as sedation ) and local anesthesia.