Peripheral intravenous cannulation with support of infrared laser vein viewing system in a pre-operation setting in pediatric patients

BACKGROUND: Venous access, a prerequisite for anesthesiological and surgical intervention in pediatric patients, is often difficult to establish and potentially painful. AV300 uses near infrared laser light to improve visibility of peripheral veins and could help cannulating them. The aim of this study was to examine if use of Accuvein(®) AV300 vein viewer could facilitate venous cannulation in children. METHODS: From January to March 2011, 238 consecutive pediatric patients (0–17 years) preceding surgical interventions were included. All participants including newborns, infants and children were allocated to groups [control group (124 patients) and intervention group (114 patients)] in a non-random way. Randomization was not feasible because data was acquired retrospectively from a clinical quality management project. In control group, peripheral IV cannulation was performed without supporting device, in intervention group with support of AV300. Time and number of attempts until successful venous cannulation were defined as primary end points. RESULTS: Median time until successful cannulation was 2 min (range 0.1–20, quartiles: 25 %: 1; 75 %: 5) in the intervention group and 1 min (range 0.1–18, quartiles: 25 %: 0.2; 75 %: 2) in the control group (p < 0.01). Median number of attempts was higher in the intervention group (2; range 1–6, quartiles: 25 %: 1; 75 %: 3) than in the control group (1; range 1–6, quartiles: 25 %: 1; 75 %: 2, p < 0.01). Rate of cannulations successful at first attempt was 0.45 (51 of 114, 95 % CI 0.35–0.54) in the intervention group and 0.73 (90 of 124, 95 % CI 0.65–0.81) in the control group (p < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: In our study we were not able to reduce neither time nor number of attempts until a successful venous cannulation in children using the vein viewer. Given certain limitations of our study as the lack of randomization and no control for inter-operator variability, the conclusions drawn from it are also limited, but by our results laser-supported cannulation cannot be recommended for standard procedures. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01434537. Registered 29 July 2011