Establishing peripheral intravenous access (PIV) is one of the most ubiquitous and crucial steps in managing critically ill patients. Yet only 74% of first attempts during emergency resuscitation in adults [1] are successful and this falls to an even-more-dismal 33% in difficult intravenous access (DIVA) patients. [2] A perennial challenge faced by clinicians, DIVA impacts patient outcomes adversely by causing downstream delays in both diagnoses (difficulty in obtaining blood specimens and administering intravenous contrast for advanced imaging) and therapy (provision of parenteral fluids, blood products or drug administration to facilitate procedures such as sedation or rapid-sequence intubation). [3] Failed cannulation attempts often cause patient and clinician alike considerable frustration and distress and may lead to complications like thrombophlebitis, infection and haematoma. [4] Moreover, time-to-cannulation averages 2.5-13.0 min for most patients but can take up to 30 min to hours in DIVA cases. [5] As DIVA patients tend to distract disproportionately more time and attention of the attending emergency physicians, this inevitably compromises the care of other patients.Although there is no consensus or universallyaccepted definition, DIVA is commonly defined as either two or more failed attempts by an experienced operator using traditional landmark-based methods BAcKGRound: A perennial challenge faced by clinicians and made even more relevant with the global obesity epidemic, difficult intravenous access (DIVA) adversely impacts patient outcomes by causing significant downstream delays with many aspects of diagnoses and therapy. As most published DIVA strategies are limited to various point-of-care ultrasound techniques while other "tricks-of-the-trade" and pearls for overcoming DIVA are mostly relegated to informal nonpublished material, this article seeks to provide a narrative qualitative review of the iterature on DIVA and consolidate these strategies into a practical algorithm. MEtHodS:We conducted a literature search on PubMed using the keywords "difficult intravenous access", "peripheral vascular access" and "peripheral venous access" and searched emergency medicine and anaesthesiology resources for relevant material. These strategies were then categorized and incorporated into a DIVA algorithm. RESuLtS:We propose a Vortex approach to DIVA that is modelled after the Difficult Airway Vortex concept: starting off with standard peripheral intravenous cannulation (PIVC) techniques, progressing sequentially on to ultrasound-guided cannulation and central venous cannulation and finally escalating to the most invasive intraosseous access should the patient be in extremis or should best efforts with the other lifelines fail. concLuSIon: DIVA is a perennial problem that healthcare providers across various disciplines will be increasingly challenged with. It is crucial to have a systematic stepwise approach such as the DIVA Vortex when managing such patients and have at hand a wide repertoire of techniques t...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.