A creative approach to central venous access in a Kenyan intensive care unit

Abstract

As healthcare systems in resource-constrained environments advance, implementation of novel services and technologies bring both opportunities for advancing patient care along with new challenges to the existing infrastructure. One example of this is the need for additional consumable goods when facilities add services such as dedicated critical care and hemodialysis. The addition of these services in the authors’ hospital led to an increased need for central venous access. In this paper, the authors describe equipment substitutions that were made to facilitate ultrasound-guided central venous catheter placement while attempting to reduce financial and logistical needs to perform the procedure safely and effectively.