Normal Saline Flushes at 12 vs 24 Hours Intervals for Maintaining Peripheral Intravenous Catheters Patency
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2013-09-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Children admitted in a ward often require a peripheral intravenous catheter to provide access
for administration of medications, nutrients, fluids, blood products. Vascular access in
children is a frequent and stressful procedure that should be performed as infrequently as
possible in order to reduce the child's pain experience and the child's and family's level of
distress. The maintenance of patency of indwelling catheters is therefore relevant to
minimize need for replacement and children discomfort.
Recent studies investigated the most effective and safe method of maintaining peripheral
intravenous lock (peripheral IVL) in children. Most of these studies focused primary on the
use of heparin versus saline flushes, showing similar efficacy of the two approaches.
To the best of the investigators knowledge no study addressed the issue of the optimal
flushing frequency of normal saline . The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of
normal saline flushes, at 12 and 24 hours intervals.