Study Overview

Arterial catheters (“arterial lines”) are widely used in adult intensive care for continuous blood pressure monitoring and frequent blood sampling. While central lines have a strong evidence base on complications, arterial line complication rates are less clearly understood. This systematic review and meta-analysis pooled the available research to estimate how often arterial catheters fail and how often infections occur in adult ICU settings.

The review included 39 ...

Study Overview

Arterial catheters are a staple in adult intensive care, used for continuous blood pressure monitoring and frequent blood sampling. But they also carry real risks, including thrombosis/occlusion, infection, and unnecessary blood loss from repeated sampling. This paper sets out to solve a common ICU gap: clear, scenario-based guidance on when arterial lines are appropriate, uncertain, or inappropriate.

Using the RAND/UCLA Appropriateness Method, the team developed a struct...

Study Overview

PICC complications like infection, thrombosis, occlusion and other failures don’t just affect clinical outcomes, they change how patients feel and function day to day. This study asked a practical question: are common patient questionnaires actually sensitive enough to detect when a patient has had a PICC complication?

Researchers conducted a secondary analysis using data from two large randomised trials in Queensland, Australia. They looked at whether a general healt...

Study Overview

Peripheral IV catheters (PIVCs) are often inserted in emergency departments “just in case.” But when a cannula isn’t used, patients still experience discomfort and potential complications without benefit.

The CathIRU study measured how often PIVCs were non-indicated across 81 French emergency departments over 48 hours (April 2025). Adult patients with a newly inserted PIVC were followed for 24 hours to see whether the cannula was used (fluids, IV meds, contrast, b...

Study OverviewIn paediatric intensive care, central venous catheters can be overused—sometimes when a midline catheter could do the job with less risk. This mixed-method implementation study tested a tailored, implementation-science approach to increase appropriate midline use in a 75-bed paediatric ICU.The project ran in three phases:Pre-implementation: July–August 2023Implementation: September 2023Post-implementation: October–November 2023Focus groups were used to map barriers and ena...

Study OverviewIn children, vascular access devices fail often—especially due to movement, dressing disruption, and dislodgement. Tissue adhesive (medical “skin glue”) is increasingly used to secure lines because it may reduce micromotion, act as a barrier at the insertion site, and help with small leaks or bleeding.This systematic review and meta-analysis pulled together randomised trials in paediatric patients (post-neonatal discharge to <18 years) to test whether tissue adhesive (T...

Study OverviewFirst-pass peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC) failure can be as high as 40%, and finding/aligning with the vein is often the hardest part—especially for less experienced inserters. This benchtop study tested a novel ultrasound-based prototype that shows a coronal “pathway” view (a visual track of the vessel path) and compared it to standard point localisation (a single ultrasound frame) in untrained users using tissue and vessel-mimicking phantoms.Fourteen untrained inv...

Study OverviewPeripheral intravenous catheters (PIVCs) are used in most hospitalised patients, but complications and infections can be preventable when care is consistent. This quality improvement initiative rolled out an evidence-based PIVC bundle across 38 private hospitals in Australia (2022–2023), aligned to the Australian Clinical Care Standard (2021).The bundle wasn’t just “education”—it was a full system package: a service-wide PIVC policy, redesigned nursing documentation, t...

Study OverviewPeripheral intravenous catheters (PIVCs) are used every day—but PIVC care in Australia is still often inconsistent and can cause avoidable harm. This priority-setting study brought together clinicians with infection prevention and control (IPC) expertise to identify the most important national priorities for improving PIVC care, plus practical actions that could actually move the needle.A total of 65 multidisciplinary clinicians participated, and the study distilled their inpu...

Study OverviewSkin antisepsis before inserting intravascular catheters is one of the biggest “make-or-break” steps for preventing catheter-related infections. This systematic review and network meta-analysis compared chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) and povidone-iodine (PVI) across different concentrations and formulations (aqueous vs alcohol-based, and alcohol type).The review included 16 randomised trials, covering 7,803 patients and 11,985 catheters, and looked at three key infection outc...