Routine versus clinically indicated replacement of intravenous catheter complications in children: a Randomized Clinical Trial

According to international sources, intravenous catheter replacement retention time, which is 72 hours In Iran, can be increased for the longer time; especially for children. This time constraint, have been created because of the incidence of common complications including: Infection, Infiltration, Phlebitis and Occlusion. This study compared the incidence of complications in routine practice versus clinical indications in children who were admitted in Imam Reza hospital, in Bojnurd, Iran. This randomized clinical trial was conducted on 150 children (Controls: 75 subjects; versus Interventions: 75 subjects). Eligible children were randomly assigned to two groups. In one group, the procedure to install and replace intravenous catheter (catheter replacement top end 72 hours), and the other group, the catheter was replaced by another catheter, after complications were occurred. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and chi-square test, ttest, Mann-Whitney, Kaplan-Meier and Log-Rank test, in Stata12 software. Among the 150 evaluated patients, side effects were observed in 31 cases. The mean of the catheter survival time in the intervention group (93 h) was significantly higher than the of control groups (67 hours) (P<0.001). The frequency of IV complications (only infiltration), in the intervention group was significantly more frequent than the control group; but in terms of complications incidence, there was no significant difference between two groups (P=0.45). Discussion and The findings of this study showed superior clinical indication method compared with routine catheter replacement.