Connect
MJA
MJA

Think before you insert an intravenous catheter

Claire Dendle, Rhonda L Stuart and Diana Egerton-Warburton
Med J Aust 2013; 199 (10): . || doi: 10.5694/mja13.10733
Published online: 18 November 2013

To the Editor: Peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC) infection has been highlighted by one of us (R L S) and colleagues as an important, costly and dangerous complication of PIVCs.1 Infection prevention programs often employ multifaceted interventions and, in the case of PIVC, much debate has been directed towards aseptic insertion and appropriate dwell times, but little attention has been directed to whether the PIVC is required.2


  • 1 Department of Infectious Diseases, Southern Health, Melbourne, VIC.
  • 2 Monash Health, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC.


Correspondence: claire.dendle@monash.edu

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

  • 1. Stuart RL, Cameron DRM, Scott C, et al. Peripheral intravenous catheter-associated Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia: more than 5 years of prospective data from two tertiary health services. Med J Aust 2013; 198: 551-553. <MJA full text>
  • 2. Rickard CM, Webster J, Wallis MC, et al. Routine versus clinically indicated replacement of peripheral intravenous catheters: a randomised controlled equivalence trial. Lancet 2012; 380: 1066-1074.
  • 3. Lederle FA, Parenti CM, Berskow LC, Ellingson KJ. The idle intravenous catheter. Ann Intern Med 1992; 116: 737-738.
  • 4. Limm EI, Fang X, Dendle C, et al. Half of all peripheral intravenous lines in an Australian tertiary emergency department are unused: pain with no gain? Ann Emerg Med 2013; pii: S0196-0644(13)00200-X. doi 10.1016/j.annemergmed. 2013.02.022 [Epub ahead of print].

Author

remove_circle_outline Delete Author
add_circle_outline Add Author

Comment
Do you have any competing interests to declare? *

I/we agree to assign copyright to the Medical Journal of Australia and agree to the Conditions of publication *
I/we agree to the Terms of use of the Medical Journal of Australia *
Email me when people comment on this article

Online responses are no longer available. Please refer to our instructions for authors page for more information.