Educational content from recorded physician discussions — not medical advice. Talk to your (or your child's) care team about your situation.
Only a few other public items share this diagnosis — go deeper there →
Video
Management of Retained Central Venous Catheters
Dr. Todd Ponsky · 3 min · Published Apr 2019
Video
Do we need Bowel Prep
1 min · Published Apr 2019
Video
Intussusception - Soft Tissue Abscess - Pilonidal Cyst - Bleeding Meckel's...
19 min · Published Nov 2018
Video
Posterior Tracheopexy For Severe Tracheomalacia
Dr. Todd Ponsky · 2 min · Published Feb 2018
Podcast
Intestinal Failure with Dr. Brad Warner
52 min · Published May 2017
Podcast
Neonatal Lung Lesions with Dr. Steven Rothenberg
66 min · Published Jan 2017
Video
Intestinal Atresia Types Explained: Grossfeld Classification for Pediatric Surgery
1 min · Published Sep 2026
Video
Derivation and validation of the Pediatric Community-Acquired Pneumonia Severity (PedCAPS) score: A prospective cohort study
50 s · Published Sep 2026
Video
FETO for Late-Diagnosed Severe Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) at Cincinnati Children's with Dr. Beth Rymeski
4 min · Published Sep 2026
Video
Severe Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) Case: FETO Management & Unexpected Findings with Dr. Beth Rymeski
3 min · Published Sep 2026
Video
Fetoscopic Endoluminal Tracheal Occlusion (FETO) Procedure: Step-by-Step Guide with Dr. Beth Rymeski
4 min · Published Sep 2026
Video
Choledochal Cyst Types Explained: Pediatric Surgery Fundamentals
1 min · Published Sep 2026
What the experts said
5 to 15% of patients who have catheters removed require some sort of additional intervention to remove the catheter.
The actual number of catheters or catheter fragments that get left behind is 0.2 to 2%.
Risk factors for catheter retention include chemotherapy infused through the lines.
Risk factors for catheter retention include catheters that are indwelling for longer than about a year and a half.
There is an association between polyurethane catheter material and catheter retention when compared with silicone catheters.
Power ports are polyurethane catheters.
For long-term chemotherapy, a silastic line should be considered instead of a polyurethane line.
If you surgically go in for a venotomy and tug at the catheter, you run a risk of bleeding.
In interventional radiology retrieval, there is a risk of the line completely breaking and embolizing distally or of thrombosis occurring during the procedure.
Silastic lines generally have a larger size diameter for a given lumen compared to polyurethane lines.
Multiple studies of patients with retained catheter fragments followed for months to the order of 5 years found no complications.
No thrombosis associated with retained catheter fragments has been reported in follow-up studies.
No infections associated with retained catheter fragments have been reported in follow-up studies.
There has never been a report of a problem by leaving a retained catheter tip in, although long-term data are lacking.