How often should peripheral intravenous catheters in ambulatory patients be flushed?
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.
Campbell
Samuel G
SG
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
Trojanowski
Jan
J
Ackroyd-Stolarz
Stacy A
SA
D000553:Ambulatory Care; D002408:Catheters, Indwelling; D002985:Clinical Protocols; D019983:Guideline Adherence; D006801:Humans; D007262:Infusions, Intravenous; D012189:Retrospective Studies