If I remember from 20 years ago when my baby brother had one, don't the PICC lines go thru the vein and directly into the heart? I can't remember about the heart part. Keeping that thing clean/open with regular heprin flushes was a major hassle, but the ability to infuse or draw blood without ANOTHER needle prick is invaluable.
Even in my own trials for diabetes, there are a few days where they need to do blood sugar challenges. I spend 4-6 hours in the office where they feed me a measured amount of glucose, then do about a dozen blood draws. If they had to stick me 12 times I'd be done with the trial.
|