Sonography of central line catheter infection in a dog
My understanding is that sonography is increasingly used in human medicines to guide interventions such as vascular access. This is a critical care case for which we were asked to perform thoracic and abdominal sonography. However, the most immediate problem turned out to be sepsis stemming from the jugular vein central line.
The catheter is visibly occluded at the tip by a thrombus. Within the thrombus, inside the catheter and adherent to the outside of the catheter are gas densities presumed to be bacterial in origin. An Enterococcus was cultured from the catheter.
