Novel Technique Confirms Femoral Line Placement Using Cardiac Ultrasound

Injecting agitated saline into a femoral venous line while sonographically imaging the heart confirms the line's location.

Accidental placement of a femoral venous catheter into the artery can cause limb ischemia, especially in children, who have small femoral arteries. Investigators assessed ability of the FLUSH (Flush the Line and UltraSound the Heart) test to distinguish arterial from venous placement of femoral lines in a cardiac catheterization lab. In each of 51 children who required both arterial and venous femoral lines as standard care, three vascular flushes with agitated saline were performed while the right atrium was monitored with subxiphoid ultrasound. A positive FLUSH was defined as opacification of the right atrium (due to air bubbles).

No arterial lines had a positive FLUSH test result. Ten percent of venous FLUSH results were negative. The FLU…

Reviewing Author

Daniel J. Pallin, MD, MPH

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardPortola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Speaker’s BureauPeerView Institute for Medical Education

Grant/Research SupportAgency for Healthcare Research and Quality; CDC; NIH–National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences; NIH–National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); NIH–NIAID–Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group; Merck; Pfizer; Boehringer-Ingelheim; Shire; Portola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Novartis; bioMérieux; Siemens; Rapid Pathogen Screening; Magnolia; Stago; Innovative Biosensors; Molecular Detection, Inc.; Dyax Corp.; Trius Pharmaceuticals

Daniel J. Pallin, MD, MPH

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardPortola Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Speaker’s BureauPeerView Institute for Medical Education

Novel Technique Confirms Femoral Line Placement Using Cardiac Ultrasound

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Reviewing Author