A tunnellized catheter with a Dacron cuff can be used as long-term venous access, provided it is properly implanted (important point: the cuff must be at 2 cm or more from the exit site).
Many power injectable cuffed catheters are available on the market: in latest-generation polyurethane, open-ended, nonvalved (Power Hickman, Powerline, Proline). This type of catheters is associated with minimal risk of breakage and mechanical complications, and lower risk of malfunction. They are available in various sizes (5Fr, 6Fr, etc.), both single and double. The silicone cuffed catheters used in the past (cuffed Groshong, Hickman, Broviac, Leonard) are now obsolete and should no longer be used: they have no advantage in terms of biocompatibility, but instead have many disadvantages (difficulty in securement, low flow, fragility, tendency to dislocation and tip migration, greater incidence of lumen occlusion, difficult disobstruction, impossibility of use at high pressures).
The Dacron cuff becomes efficient for stabilization purposes only two to three weeks after implantation (i.e. only after the development of adhesions between the cuff and the subcutaneous tissue); in this first period after implantation, the catheter must be temporarily stabilized with a sutureless system with skin adhesiveness (or even with a SAS).