Pediatrics ·
Ultrasound-Guided Peripheral IVs Lasted Longer in a Pediatric ICU Cohort
A single-center retrospective cohort compared catheter longevity after ultrasound-guided and landmark-guided peripheral IV placement in critically ill children. Ultrasound-guided catheters had a longer median duration, including among children with cardiac disease or difficult vascular access.
- US-guided catheters lasted a median 5 days versus 3.
- The association persisted in cardiac and difficult-access subgroups.
- Retrospective, single-center findings do not establish causation.
Researchers conducted a retrospective observational cohort study in a tertiary pediatric medical-surgical ICU, including cardiac patients admitted between January 2016 and October 2018. They compared ultrasound-guided peripheral IV catheters (USGPIVs) with landmark-guided catheters (LMGPIVs) placed within two weeks of a USGPIV. The cohort included 507 USGPIV and 292 LMGPIV placements; longevity data were available for 334 and 278, respectively.
Median catheter longevity was 5 days (interquartile range [IQR], 2–9) for USGPIVs and 3 days (IQR, 1–4) for LMGPIVs (p<0.001). The association persisted in subgroup analyses: among cardiac cases, median longevity was 5 versus 3 days (p=0.038), and among patients with known difficult vascular access, it was 5 versus 2 days (p<0.001).
The findings suggest ultrasound guidance may be associated with longer-lasting peripheral access in this PICU population. The retrospective, single-center design does not establish that ultrasound guidance caused the difference, and the study reports catheter longevity rather than broader patient outcomes.
In practice
For critically ill children requiring peripheral IV access in a PICU, ultrasound-guided placement was associated with longer catheter longevity than landmark-guided placement: median 5 versus 3 days in this cohort. The association was also observed in cardiac patients and those with known difficult vascular access. These retrospective, single-center data do not establish causality or show effects on broader patient outcomes, so they do not by themselves establish that practice should change.
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Pediatric Critical Care Medicine: Peripheral IV Catheter Longevity With Ultrasound Guidance in the PICU: Single-Center Retrospective Cohort, 2016–2018 ↗This is an automated AI-condensed summary that has not yet been reviewed by an editor. Always consult the full item at the original source.