To the Editor—The One Million Global Peripheral Intravenous Catheter Study (OMG PIVC) was the largest prevalence study to date on the use and management of short-term peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVC) in adult and pediatric inpatients from 49 countries.Reference Alexandrou, Ray-Barruel, Carr and Frost 1 The authors found that many PIVCs were placed in areas of flexion, were symptomatic or idle, had suboptimal dressings, or lacked adequate documentation, which suggested an inconsistency between recommendations in PIVC management and current practice.Reference Alexandrou, Ray-Barruel, Carr and Frost 1
Although few data are available on the effect of laterality on (peripherally inserted) central venous catheters,Reference Engstrom, Horvath and Stewart 2 – Reference Paquet, Boucher, Valenti and Lindsay 4 information is completely lacking for PIVCs. Thus, we supplemented the data from the 302 PIVCs our center contributed to the OMG PIVC study with additional variables on PIVC laterality and patient handedness. All other variables were collected as described in detail in the OMG PIVC study.Reference Alexandrou, Ray-Barruel, Carr and Frost 1
Our aim was to correlate the laterality of PIVCs placed in the upper extremity with the outcome rates of complications and patient satisfaction. We included 291 of 302 PIVCs (96.4%) that were inserted at the upper extremity and where information on laterality was available. Characteristics such as handedness, bed days at the time of data collection (April 15, 2015) and PIVC insertion position at the upper extremity (wrist and/or hand versus forearm and/or elbow) did not differ significantly depending on the laterality of the PIVC (Table 1). Also, PIVC outcomes and patient satisfaction did not depend on PIVC laterality (Table 1). Based on this, we conclude that laterality should not influence the decision regarding where to insert a PIVC at the upper extremity.
Table 1 Characteristics and Outcomes of Peripheral Intravenous Catheters Correlated With Laterality
Note. NA, not available; PIVC, peripherally inserted venous catheter.
b Likert scale response: 0=worst possible; 10=best possible.
a Determined using the χ2 and Mann-Whitney U tests, as appropriate.
Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the One Million Global Peripheral Intravenous Catheter (OMG PIVC) study team for the original concept and study design (Evan Alexandrou, Gillian Ray-Barruel, Niall Higgins, Steven Frost, Peter Carr, Sheila Inwood, Frances Lin, Leonard Mermel and Claire Rickard). Also, we thank the infection prevention team at Bern University Hospital for data collection.
Financial support
No financial support was provided relevant to this article.
Conflicts of interest
All authors report no conflicts of interest relevant to this article.
