Technique for Successful Ultrasound-guided Peripheral Vascular Access

Detailed Summary

Obtaining peripheral vascular access in medical patients is a necessary procedure for many healthcare providers. Peripheral vascular access is traditionally performed using palpation or visual inspection to identify appropriate points of entry in the vasculature after which a needle and catheter are threaded through the skin and surround fascia into the vessel of interest. This procedure, one of the most common procedures in the medical field including both artery and vein access, is not 100% successfully attempted. Operator skill heavily influences peripheral vascular cannulation. (Frisch et al. 2013) However, certain patient populations have difficult peripheral vessels to identify by palpation or visual inspection and past operators would be forced to perform the procedure blind based on anatomical landmarks. Recently, to aid vascular identification and increase cannulation success, a number of alternative techniques for peripheral vascular access have been described including ultrasound-guided. Ultrasound-guided vascular access has been utilized in vascular access with improved success rate. However, even with ultrasound guidance the first attempt success rate of cannulation was only approximately 65%. A proposed failure of ultrasound guided peripheral vascular access is most likely due to failure to advance the catheter into the vessel even the vessel was successfully punctured. The investigators propose a specific technique and the positive "Target Sign" as a means to obtain almost 100% successful peripheral vascular access. The investigators plan to enroll 100 surgical patients in the above study and study procedures will not differ from what a patient in the operating room under the care of anesthesia faculty would receive. The above study is simply a way to identify the steps regarding a specific technique.

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