Management of chemotherapy extravasation: ESMO–EONS Clinical Practice Guidelines

Extravasation is the process by which any liquid (fluid or drug) accidentally leaks into the surrounding tissue. In terms of cancer therapy, extravasation refers to the inadvertent infiltration of chemotherapy into the subcutaneous or subdermal tissues surrounding the intravenous or intra-arterial administration site. Extravasated drugs are classified according to their potential for causing damage as ‘vesicant’, ‘irritant’ and ‘nonvesicant’ (Table 1). Some vesicant drugs are further classified into two groups: DNA binding and non-DNA binding. Allwood et al. (2002) divided the drugs into vesicants, exfoliants, irritants, inflammitants and neutrals.