SUMMARYThis article describes the technique of saphenous vein peripherally inserted central catheter placement, which is used as an alternative site for venous access in our institution, and examines saphenous vein peripherally inserted central catheter safety issues and indications. Three end-stage renal failure patients, two patients diagnosed with malignancy and one renal transplant patient had a saphenous peripherally inserted central catheter (inserted between March 2004 and March 2006 for antibiotics or chemotherapy. The average duration of placement was 16.2 days (range 3-42 days). All insertions were carried out successfully, with an average screening time of 81.2 s. None of the patients experienced any major complications. Two patients developed localized cellulitis at the insertion site.
Background
Difficult venous access (DVA) can prevent delivery of life-saving intravenous (IV) fluids and medication. The Airglove™ was developed to facilitate IV access, circumventing DVA in chemotherapy patients, as current warm-water immersion (WWI) methods are sub-optimal.
Methods
This study had two parts; EAGLE-1, an observational, proof-of-concept study and EAGLE-2, a prospective, cross-sectional comparative study. EAGLE-1 recruited 80 adult participants undergoing chemotherapy for cancer with DVA where venous cannula insertion success rate was evaluated using Airglove™. EAGLE-2 was carried out on 34 adult healthy participants where the degree of venodilation by WWI and AirGlove™ in three veins; cubital-fossa cephalic vein, cubital-fossa median vein and the third dorsal carpal vein on both arms were measured using the GE Logic S8 multi-frequency linear-array transducer (L6-15MHz), two-dimension B-mode ultrasound. Baseline measurements were taken at 23oC, forearms were warmed to 38oC using the two modalities prior to ultrasound assessment.
Results
An IV cannulation success-rate of 87.5% was achieved with the Airglove™ in EAGLE-1. The EAGLE-2 study demonstrated significant venodilation enhancement in all veins examined (p < 0.001, 95% C.I) using the Airglove™. BMI, percentage body-fat, age, gender, or blood-pressure did not significantly influence the degree of venodilation.
Conclusions
Airglove™ enabled a significant percentage of successful cannulations in participants with DVA in EAGLE-1. EAGLE-2 demonstrated that Airglove™ significantly enhanced venodilation compared to WWI. There may be potential for Airglove™ to be considered in specific clinical settings where DVA is encountered.
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.