What are the advantages of an intravenous port?

To put it most briefly, an intravenous port is meant to give the patient safety and comfort during treatment with agents that irritate the inner wall of the veins. Cannulas should not be used for such treatment, except in exceptional cases, when for organisational reasons the patient does not have a port yet and treatment needs to, and already can, begin.

Safety

• comes from the port’s construction, which differs from that of a cannula. The port is hidden entirely under the skin, so it cannot catch on anything and be pulled out by accident,
• the place where a cannula passes through the skin also creates a risk of infection at the insertion site. With a port there is no such risk
• the catheter of a properly inserted port does not kink, whereas a cannula easily kinks or slips out of the vein, which hinders or stops the flow of the preparation being given,
• a dozen or so centimetres of the port catheter lie in a large, compliant vein, that is, one in which even a sizeable volume, e.g. of contrast for a CT scan, does not raise the pressure much. The same volume of contrast given through a short cannula sometimes raises the pressure in a less compliant vein, e.g. in the crook of the elbow, so much that it simply hurts, and the contrast may also leak out into the tissue under the skin.

Comfort

• the port lets you live normally,
• it makes the work of nurses easier, as they have no trouble finding the port chamber and choosing where to puncture,
• using a port avoids painful inflammation of the veins, which often leads to their blockage and leaves unsightly marks,
• the port works both ways: medicines can be injected, treatment with an infuser can be given at home, and blood can be taken.