Ultrasound Guided Vascular Access in Pediatric Intensive Care Patients

March 22, 2017 updated by: Jana Stockwell, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

Ultrasound Guided Vascular Access: A Prospective Comparison Study

The purpose of this study is to see how fast and accurate two different techniques used by physicians to insert catheters in children are. Catheters are tiny tubes which carry fluids, blood and sometimes liquid food into a person's vein. The technique currently used relies on the physical landmarks and using fingers to feel the anatomy in which to place the catheter in the vein or artery. The investigators are changing to a technique where they will use ultrasound at the patient's bedside to help physicians with placing the catheter into the blood vessel. They are comparing the use of these two methods to determine which is faster and requires fewer needle sticks.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Detailed Description

In critically ill patients, central venous access is essential for volume resuscitation, administration of medicines (such as vasoactive drugs, antibiotics or chemotherapy), administration of blood products, and hemodynamic monitoring. Placement of central venous catheters (CVC) occurs commonly with over 200,000 CVCs placed in adults and children yearly. At Egleston 222 central venous lines were placed last year and 178 CVCs YTD through October. Obtaining central venous access in critically ill children can be a difficult procedure with many potential complications. These complications can include, but are not limited to, hematoma at the site, hemothorax, pneumothorax, need to change sites, and injury to surrounding structures. The complication rates for CVCs in children is reported anywhere from 2.5% to 22%. All too frequently CVC placement in children is unsuccessful anywhere from 5% of the time to greater than 19%.

Studies in adults have shown ultrasound guided central venous access to decrease the number of attempts required to cannulate the vein. Ultrasound (US) guidance is also able to decrease the time required to cannulate the vessel. A meta analysis of ultrasound guided central venous access in adults concluded that for internal jugular procedures ultrasound guidance was significantly more successful than the landmark technique alone. With the recent focus on patient safety and clinical outcomes the American College of Emergency Physicians published a policy statement included in the guidelines use of US guidance for central venous access in a list of primary applications for ultrasound in the emergency department.

Evidence for US guidance in children is currently found mainly in the anesthesia literature. The 2003 NICE sponsored meta-analysis showed an overall relative risk reduction of 85% for failed placement and 73% for complications of internal jugular placement in pediatric patients in an operating room. Because of small sample sizes (each < 100 patients) and only the internal jugular approach being studied, definitive conclusions regarding other sites are ongoing. Currently there are no prospective studies evaluating the use of ultrasound guided central venous access in children in a pediatric intensive care unit. Also, studies addressing the use of US guided CVC placement in femoral access, the major site used in children, is also lacking.

Our proposal is to prove that US guided CVC will decrease the overall time required to cannulate the vessel by increasing the probability of successful cannulation by the first operator, decreasing the number of skin punctures to obtain access, eliminating the need to change sites for access, and improving the probability of access. Additionally we believe that US guided CVC placement would decrease the likelihood of untoward effects including but not limited to severe hematoma requiring attempts at additional sites, inadvertent puncture of the wrong vessel, or hemothorax/pneumothorax.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

212

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Georgia
      • Atlanta, Georgia, United States, 30322
        • Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

1 month to 18 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

All patients admitted to the Pediatric Intensive care Unit (PICU) at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • All patients admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) who require vascular access.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Age greater than 18 years.
  • Any vascular catheter placed outside of the pediatric intensive care unit at Egleston.
  • Any vascular catheter placed by a physician other than a member of the pediatric critical care team.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Landmark
Procedure/Surgery: Use of landmarks for central line placement
Ultrasound guided
Procedure/Surgery: Use of ultrasound for central line placement

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Central Line Placement Success
Time Frame: immediate
Success was defined as central venous catheter being able to thread into the vessel over the guide wire.
immediate

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Time to Successful Central Line Placement
Time Frame: immediate
Time, in seconds, till successful guide wire placement was achieved.
immediate

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Jana A Stockwell, MD, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
  • Principal Investigator: Curt Froehlich, MD, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

January 1, 2005

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2007

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2007

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 13, 2005

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 13, 2005

First Posted (Estimate)

September 21, 2005

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 18, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 22, 2017

Last Verified

March 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 04-130

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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