What to Expect


Your doctor may ask you to stop taking aspirin, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), or other blood-thinning medicines before your procedure. Typically, tunneled catheter removal is performed as an outpatient procedure (no overnight stay in the hospital is necessary). You may undergo catheter removal under general anesthesia (fully asleep) or light sedation (medicine to help you feel relaxed), depending on your condition. 

To begin the procedure, your interventional radiologist will inject a local anesthetic (numbing only the immediate area so you won’t feel pain) into the skin around the tunneled catheter site. They gently loosen the surrounding skin and remove the catheter and place a bandage and sterile dressing over the area. 

You may experience some tenderness and redness around the around for a few days, but you should be able to resume your normal activities soon after the procedure.

Who is a Candidate?


If you’ve had a tunneled catheter placed and you’ve finished your therapy — such as IV (intravenous) medicine, chemotherapy, or nutrition therapy — you need to have your tunneled catheter removed.