Management of difficult intravenous access:a qualitative revie

BACKGROUND:A perennial challenge faced by clinicians and made even more relevant with the global obesity epidemic,difficult intravenous access(DIVA)adversely impacts patient outcomes by causing significant downstream delays with many aspects of diagnoses and therapy.As most published DIVA strategies are limited to various point-of-care ultrasound techniques while other“tricks-of-the-trade”and pearls for overcoming DIVA are mostly relegated to informal nonpublished material,this article seeks to provide a narrative qualitative review of the iterature on DIVA and consolidate these strategies into a practical algorithm.METHODS:We conducted a literature search on PubMed using the keywords“difficult intravenous access”,“peripheral vascular access”and“peripheral venous access”and searched emergency medicine and anaesthesiology resources for relevant material.These strategies were then categorized and incorporated into a DIVA algorithm.RESULTS:We propose a Vortex approach to DIVA that is modelled after the Difficult Airway Vortex concept:starting off with standard peripheral intravenous cannulation(PIVC)techniques,progressing sequentially on to ultrasound-guided cannulation and central venous cannulation and finally escalating to the most invasive intraosseous access should the patient be in extremis or should best efforts with the other lifelines fail.CONCLUSION:DIVA is a perennial problem that healthcare providers across various disciplines will be increasingly challenged with.It is crucial to have a systematic stepwise approach such as the DIVA Vortex when managing such patients and have at hand a wide repertoire of techniques to draw upon.

Research Progress of Assessment Tools for Peripheral Venous Access Difficulties in Children

Objective:To review the research progress of peripheral venous access difficulty assessment tools in children and to provide a reference for clinical nurses to select and develop appropriate assessment tools.Methods:Search the literature at home and abroad and summarize and analyze the existing evaluation tools.Results:There is no unified assessment tool about difficult venous access in children at home and abroad.The existing tools include the difficult venous access assessment scale and peripheral venous grading assessment tool.Conclusion:The current assessment tools for venous access difficulties in children have their own limitations,and it is necessary to develop further the assessment tools suitable for the cultural background of children's venous access difficulties.This paper summarized the current progress of research on peripheral venous access difficulty assessment tools.It also analyzed and summarized the shortcomings of existing tools to provide a reference for clinical staff to choose appropriate assessment tools.

Lipid infusion and intravenous access in newborn infants

The spectacular development of neonatal intensive care since the 1960s allowed a drop in neonatal mortality of very-low-birth-weight （VLBW） infants from 50% to less than 15% in the last decade.