Non-inferiority of Clinical Trials in Comparison With the Length of Totally Implemented Porth-a-Cath Maintenance From 60 Versus 90 Days

Abstract: Antineoplastic therapy (AT) is one of the most used treatment modalities to fight cancer, either curatively or palliatively. There are several possible routes of administration, but the intravenous is the most used for its safe absorption and maintenance of the drug's serum level (1). Among the central catheters used in oncology, the long-term Totally Implantable (CTI) catheter is one of the most well accepted by patients and healthcare professionals. Being used in the administration of fluids, medication, parenteral nutrition or to obtain blood. Maintaining the CTI is essential to maintain its permeability, and thus, its proper functioning (2-4). The COVID-19 pandemic requires several readjustments from health institutions to ensure healthy environments for patients and less exposure to the hospital environment, one of the measures to focus on increasing the maintenance time of the ICU from 30 to 60 days. Objective: To verify the safety of increasing the maintenance interval of the Port-a-Cath catheter from 30 to 60 days through the rate of infection, obstruction, dysfunction in the infusion of solutions and blood reflux at the end of a year of follow-up. Method: This is an observational study, a single research arm, with a scheduled duration from January 2021 to August 2022 at the chemotherapy clinics of the A.C.Camargo Cancer Center. Expected results: This investigation is expected to demonstrate that maintenance with saline every 60 days does not increase obstruction or infection in patients who are in clinical follow-up compared to maintenance for 30 days.