Chemoport device to enable less painful cancer treatment at GRH

MADURAI: A novel cancer treatment procedure was launched in Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH), Madurai. Five cancer patients had benefited with implantation of this new device known as ‘Chemoport,’ which helps easy administration of chemotherapy to cancer patients, A Rathinavel, Dean, Madurai Medical College, said.

Administering chemotherapy through peripheral veins in the forearm or hand is usually painful. Repeated cannulation of a peripheral vein during each cycle of chemotherapy is even more painful and veins become unavailable after a few cycles as they get blocked due to inflammation.

In such situations, identifying a peripheral vein eligible for cannulation would itself be a challenging task and would require expert doctors or nurses to accomplish it. At times, inadvertent spillage of chemotherapy after a difficult cannulation could be catastrophic resulting in damage of surrounding soft tissue and skin and sometimes even limb loss. It would cause a constant agony for cancer patients receiving chemotherapy during every admission.

All these issues could be overcome by this advanced drug administration device called chemoport, which helps patients to receive a swift and pain free chemotherapy, the Dean said in a statement.

It enables cancer doctors to treat a larger number of patients with lesser man power and facilitates ‘Day care chemotherapy’. Cancers such as blood cancer, certain types of bone and breast cancers might require chemotherapy for a year or more. Chemoport could be retained for around three years to make chemotherapy easy for such patients. Hence, Chemoport is a big boon to poor cancer patients getting treated at GRH.

Ramesh, professor and Head, Department of Surgical Oncology thanked the Dean for his support and also the Departments of Anesthesiology Medical Oncology for their cooperation in conducting the programme. This procedure is also approved by the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme. “On this World Cancer Day, we dedicate this chemoport service to all poor cancer patients of our hospital,” said Dr. Ramesh.