Peripheral IV catheter effective alternative to central lines

A new study concludes that the POWERWAND® peripheral IV (PIV) catheter is an effective alternative to central lines and standard PIV's, achieving unprecedented levels of success in patients requiring longer-term IV therapy.

“Subjects in our study population experienced significantly less thrombosis, catheter occlusion, phlebitis and infiltration than with other reports of complications from studies on PIV outcomes”

The peer-reviewed study by researchers at the Center for Nursing Research, Orlando Health, in Orlando, Fla., appears in the Spring 2012 issue of the Journal of the Association for Vascular Access (JAVA).

Researchers said the FDA-cleared POWERWAND was successfully placed on first attempt 95% of the time, in a challenging population of patients with a history of difficult IV access. There was also a highly favorable rate of IV therapy completion -- 88.5% of cases.

The study documented an historically low overall complication rate. "Subjects in our study population experienced significantly less thrombosis, catheter occlusion, phlebitis and infiltration than with other reports of complications from studies on PIV outcomes," the authors said.

The research team for the study in JAVA was headed by chief author William G. Warrington Jr., PhD, RN, CCRP, nurse scientist at the Center for Nursing Research, Orlando Health, in Orlando, Fla.

With patient satisfaction emerging as an important factor in hospital reimbursement, the study is notable for documenting very high levels of patient satisfaction with the POWERWAND.

This vascular access device was developed to be the PIV catheter that can deliver continuous IV therapy for most patients' entire length of stay, while also offering the possibility of a one-needlestick hospitalization.

"Patients should not be treated as pincushions, and this study proves they need not be. Clinicians no longer have to accept as inevitable the repetitive needlesticks and countless complications that patients suffer from other vascular access devices," said Steve Bierman, M.D., CEO of Access Scientific, makers of the POWERWAND.

"The research findings show that this new device has several advantages over traditional catheters," Dr. Bierman said. "Regular PIVs are prone to fall out, and they cause phlebitis - a painful inflammation - more often than not. PICC's, which are central lines, risk life-threatening infections and blood clots, and are more expensive than PIV's. I expect this new evidence will substantially change clinicians' decision-making algorithms, and will put POWERWAND at the top of the decision tree."

The 157 subjects enrolled in the study were Orlando Health patients who needed vascular access for more than 72 hours and who had a history of difficult IV access. The PIVs were placed by trained nurses using ultrasound guidance.

Other significant results in the JAVA article included:

* Patient satisfaction. Subjects rated their satisfaction with long-term POWERWAND use at 9.87 out of 10 when compared to previous PIV therapy experiences.

* Long dwell times. Average dwell time was 6.8 days, a length never before documented in published literature for any other peripheral IV catheter.

* Power injection. Power injection was successfully performed 15 times on 10 subjects, without complications.

* Blood draws. The catheter was successfully used to draw blood in 95% of subjects, virtually eliminating the need for additional needlesticks of patients to perform blood tests.

"This study shows that the POWERWAND is fulfilling its promise of being a safer, more comfortable long-term IV catheter, which can also replace central lines in many cases," said Dr. Bierman.