Factors influencing the peripheral venous catheter survival in critically ill children in a pediatric intensive care unit.

OBJECTIVES

To study the duration of the peripheral venous catheter access and the effect of variables such as intravenous fluid, medications and blood products on the life span of the catheter in authors' pediatric intensive care unit.

METHODS

All peripheral intravenous lines established in sick children aged 1 mo to 15 y admitted to authors' intensive care were included and details of cannula gauge, insertion site, sampling, drugs administered and the mode of administration were noted. The cannulas were monitored regularly for signs of infiltration till removal. The time of insertion and removal along with the reason for termination was noted and the life span was calculated. Mann Whitney test was used to test for differences in median survival time with respect to drugs administered and Kaplan Meir survival analysis was used to compare the survival of the cannula at different time periods for each drug.

RESULTS

One hundred seventy four catheters were placed on 102 children aged 1 mo to 15 y over a period of 2 mo; of which 63 got infiltrated. The mean life span of the catheter was 39 + 24.4 h. Administration of phenytoin (13.2 vs. 40 h, p = 0.000) and mannitol (14.5 vs. 80 h, p = 0.034) significantly decreased the survival and infusion of blood (66.5 vs. 31.5 h, p = 0.002) prolonged the survival of the catheters.

CONCLUSIONS

The catheters in the index study lasted on an average for 39 h. Phenytoin, mannitol, blood and blood products were found to significantly influence the survival of the catheters.