Peripheral Intravenous Catheter Complications: A Comparative Analysis of 6 Reference Documents.
Baudolino Mussa, Noemí Cortés Rey, Fredericus H J van Loon and 2 others
PMID 42065678WHAT IT FOUND
Six peripheral IV catheter guidance documents vary in terminology and coverage.
Important complication prevention topics were missing from all documents, especially thrombophlebitis, thrombosis, and infiltration.
Key findings
01Of 226 term-to-complication connections judged important by the authors, 88 were not found in any reference document.
02The strongest connectivity between author expectation and reference document citation was for local infection, phlebitis, and CABSI, reported with more than 45 connections; the weakest were infiltration, thrombosis, and thrombophlebitis.
03None of the 6 documents used GRADE to rate evidence quality.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The authors scored importance without a validated terminology, so the analysis reflects expert judgment. The reference documents differed in method and scope, so their recommendations could not be compared directly. Key word searching produced only a yes or no record of whether a term was linked to a complication, not the details of the content. Translation and alternative terminology could affect how content was found, although the authors report this did not change overall consensus. Four of the 6 documents have not been updated in more than 8 years. None of the 6 documents used GRADE to rate evidence quality.
Declared interests
Funding for manuscript preparation was provided by Becton Dickinson, which the paper says had no control over content. Cogora provided meeting facilitation and medical writing support.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that any IV catheter practice reduces complications. This paper compared wording and topic coverage in six reference documents, not patient outcomes.