Percutaneous Catheter and Port Placement for Hepatic Arterial Infusion Chemotherapy: Catheter Placement from Subclavian Artery

Abstract

Hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC) has been performed for patients with life-threatening liver tumors resistant to standard therapies for more than 30 years. Placement of the port and catheter system for HAIC is performed by surgeons or interventional radiologists. Surgical placement requires laparotomy, whereas the interventional radiologic approach places a port and a catheter percutaneously. The interventional radiologic technique of implanting a port and catheter was originally developed in Japan in the 1980s. The procedure consists of arterial redistribution, catheter and port placement, and evaluation and management of the drug distribution. For the catheter and port placement, the subclavian artery, femoral artery, or inferior epigastric artery is used as an access route. We have used a subclavian artery for HAIC to have the stability of the system at the anterior chest wall and the ease to advance a catheter into hepatic arteries at the time of the placement; however, there are some risks, such as cerebral infarction, and the specific skills of a cutdown procedure are required to access the subclavian artery. No procedure can be perfectly appropriate for all patients, and we should consider what we choose on a case-by-case basis. With this video (available online at www.jvir.org), we hope many interventional radiologists will be aware that this could be within their scope of practice with training.