The effect of the vein imaging device used in peripheral intravenous catheterization on the initial vascular access of the procedure in patients admitted to the children’s emergency department: A randomized controlled trial

Introduction

The intravenous cannulation of children in emergency can be extremely challenging. This study was aimed at investigating the effect of the vein-imaging device used in peripheral intravenous catheterization on the success of the procedure in patients who presented to the children’s emergency department.

Methods

In this randomized controlled study, 70 6- to 12-year-old children who presented to the emergency department were enrolled in the study. Then, they were randomly assigned to the vein imaging group (experimental group, n = 35) and to the standard group (control group, n = 35). The primary outcome measure was the success of the first attempt. Secondary outcome measures were the number of intravenous attempts and time allocated to the peripheral intravenous catheter placement.

Results

Seventy children completed the study. Of them, 35 were girls and 35 were boys. The total time for the attempts per patient were shorter in the vein imaging group than it was in the standard group (29.48 ± 10.21 vs 35.00 ± 24.65). There was a significant difference between the children in the vein imaging device and standard groups in terms of the mean difficult intravenous access scores during the procedure (p < 0.05). The children in the vein imaging device group obtained higher mean scores than did the children in the standard group.

Discussion

The use of new AccuVein AV500 technology assisted with peripheral intravenous catheterization access in children improves the first time success rate. Improved visualization of veins also reduced the number of attempts and the time required for the placement.