title: How often should peripheral intravenous catheters in ambulatory patients be flushed?
abstract: Ambulatory intravenous (IV) treatment is frequently prescribed to be administered every 24 hours. Institutional protocols commonly recommend flushing catheters every 8 hours. The authors sought to identify whether flushing more than once every 24 hours conferred any benefit. A retrospective review compared complication rates of different catheter flushing intervals for patients receiving IV therapy. This study investigated 111 courses of treatment for 63 patients. In 43% of the patients (48/111), complications were identified during the treatment period. Complications were less common with flushing every 24 hours (39/99, 39.4%) than with more frequent flushing (9/12, 75%) (P = .021). Indwelling peripheral IV catheters flushed once every 24 hours appear to have lower complication rates than those flushed 2 or 3 times a day.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Emergency Medicine at Dalhousie University, QEII Health Sciences Centre, 1796 Summer Street, HI 302, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 3A7. samuel.campbell@cdha.nshealth.ca
authors.forename: Samuel G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Campbell
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Trojanowski
authors.forename: Stacy A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ackroyd-Stolarz
mesh_terms: D000553:Ambulatory Care; D002408:Catheters, Indwelling; D002985:Clinical Protocols; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D007262:Infusions, Intravenous; D012189:Retrospective Studies