Hickman catheter

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

Indications

• chemotherapy administration ²
• parenteral nutrition ²
• long-term parenteral antibiotic administration ²

Complications

Insertion

• arrhythmia (most common) ¹
• arterial injury
• kinking
• pneumothorax
• failure

Long-term

• infection (most common) ^1,2
• occlusion
• thrombosis
• tip migration

History and etymology

In the late 1970s, Robert O Hickman (1926-2019) ⁴, 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 ³.