Although Hickman catheters provide safe and reliable venous access for chemotherapy over many months (1, 2), infectious complications (3, 4) and the need for sophisticated and attentive care to maintain patency of the catheter for the duration of therapy (5) have encouraged the development of alternative devices. Access ports have recently been introduced (6, 7) to avoid these problems of maintenance and sepsis. The ports are implanted subcutaneously and have a small reservoir attached to the external end of the venous access tubing. Entry to the device for drug administration is gained by directing a specially designed needle through the