RookieDoc Central Line Placement Resources

Central venous catheter insertion can be pretty stressful... especially depending on who's watching, how awake the patient is, how cooperative the patient is, and what kind of time constraints you have... and whether or not you have some upper level resident or attending support nearby. (Which you usually do, but most of us tend to feel like we can't ask them... but you can and should). So, I wanted to help you prepare for placing lines.

You could just as easily search for central line insertion tutorials yourself. You know what it's like when you Google something medical... you get all of these cheesy pages with Adsense ads everywhere and very generic information. Well... instead of having to wade through a bunch of materials to find the best of them, I wanted to group them together for you.

Handouts and E-Books:

• Preventing Complications of Central Venous Catheterization (pdf) - This is an in-depth NEJM article on preventing complications when placing central lines. It's actually pretty awesome.
• Central Line Placement - Intern Teaching Conference (pdf) - This is a concise resource (like you'd find in any book really), but a good quick, review. It covers indications, contraindications, and advantages and disadvantages of each site... plus the set up and post-procedure tasks.

Videos:

This is an awesome central line series posted in chunks on YouTube by "njohnsonmd". Check out his YouTube page and I recommend that you subscribe to his videos. He puts out some good stuff. Anyway, this central line placement series covers it from the perspective or the ER. I'll give you some other resources for other healthcare settings, plus some other things to think about - consents, landmarks, time outs, hospital policy, time savers, etc.

Other Videos:

The Number One Strategy for 4th Year of Med School and Internship: