Risk factors for peripheral venous catheter failure: A prospective cohort study of 5345 patients

PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to determine the independent risk factors associated with peripheral venous catheter (PVC) failure and develop a model that can predict PVC failure. METHODS: This prospective, multicenter cohort study was carried out in nine tertiary hospitals in Suzhou, China between December 2017 and February 2018. Adult patients undergoing first-time insertion of a PVC were observed from catheter insertion to removal. Logistic regression was used to identify the independent risk factors predicting PVC failure. RESULTS: This study included 5345 patients. The PVC failure rate was 54.05% (n = 2889/5345), and the most common causes of PVC failure were phlebitis (16.3%) and infiltration/extravasation (13.8%). On multivariate analysis, age (45–59 years: OR, 1.295; 95% CI, 1.074–1.561; 60–74 years: OR, 1.375; 95% CI, 1.143–1.654; ⩾75 years: OR, 1.676; 95% CI, 1.355–2.073); department (surgery OR, 1.229; 95% CI, 1.062–1.423; emergency internal/surgical ward OR, 1.451; 95% CI, 1.082–1.945); history of venous puncture in the last week (OR, 1.298, 95% CI 1.130–1.491); insertion site, number of puncture attempts, irritant fluid infusion, daily infusion time, daily infusion volume, and type of sealing liquid were independent predictors of PVC failure. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis indicated that a logistic regression model constructed using these variables had moderate accuracy for the prediction of PVC failure (area under the curve, 0.781). The Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness of fit test demonstrated that the model was correctly specified (χ(2) = 2.514, p = 0.961). CONCLUSION: This study should raise awareness among healthcare providers of the risk factors for PVC failure. We recommend that healthcare providers use vascular access device selection tools to select a clinically appropriate device and for the timely detection of complications, and have a list of drugs classified as irritants or vesicants so they can monitor patients receiving fluid infusions containing these drugs more frequently.