Prevention of needle-stick injury. Efficacy of a safeguarded intravenous cannula.

One possible method of reducing the incidence of needle-stick injury is to use needles with safeguard mechanisms. The needle of the Insyte AutoGuard intravenous cannula can be retracted into the safety barrel. One hundred patients were randomly allocated to receive either an 18-gauge conventional Insyte intravenous cannula (group C) or the AutoGuard cannula (group AG) to assess the ease of use and efficacy of the AutoGuard device. It was possible to insert the cannula into the vein within two attempts in all patients; there was no significant difference between two groups with respect to ease of insertion. No problems, such as inadvertent withdrawal of the needle, occurred during insertion in any patient. Handling the withdrawn needle was judged significantly safer in group AG than in group C (p < 0.001). Blood contamination often occurred where a withdrawn needle was placed in group C, whereas no blood stain was detected in any case in group AG (p < 0.001). The AutoGuard cannula provides safer handling of a withdrawn needle without reducing its ease of insertion.