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Obtaining intravenous (IV) access in children can be difficult, and ultrasound may be a useful adjunct for IV placement. Researchers compared the success rates of ultrasound-guided and traditional IV placement in a randomized trial of children (aged ≤18 years) in a single pediatric emergency department for whom difficult IV access was predicted based on a validated scoring system.
In the traditional IV group, catheters were placed by a nurse with at least 3 years of experience. In the ultrasound-guided group, catheters were placed under continuous ultrasound visualization by attending physicians (3), fellows (10), or nurses (3) who underwent at least 4 hours of training and had performed at least 10 ultrasound-guided IV placements.
The study …