Radiological imaging on umbilical venous catheter’s placement in preterm infants in the neonatal intensive care unit

Abstract

Umbilical vessel catheterization is a technique used for neonatal reanimation, in neonatal intensive care units. Imaging techniques provide a strong support for the performance of this practice. In this case, radiography is the most widely used instrumental investigation for the evaluation of umbilical venous catheter placement. By protocol, the image is acquired with an antero-posterior projection of the thoraco-abdominal district, with perpendicular radius to the median sagittal plane. The following descriptive study has been carried out on 20 newborn patients of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the University Hospital “San Giovanni di Dio e Ruggi d’Aragona”, born between December 4th 2020 and March 31th 2021. This study describes the effectiveness of the “thoraco-abdominal” radiological technique for the assessment of neonatal umbilical catheter placement. The basic premise for patients’ recruitment was the request for evaluation of umbilical venous catheter placement in preterm infants.