Dual Verification Reduces Contrast Media Extravasation in Peripheral Intravenous Catheters Lacking Blood Return

• Published in: Journal of radiology nursing Vol. 37; no. 4; pp. 247 - 249
• Main Authors: Somers, Andrew, Tepper, Abigail, Reed, Charmaine, Tallent, Trenton
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Inc 01-12-2018
• Subjects: Dual verification; Extravasation; PIV; Radiology nursing; Radiology nursing; Dual verification; PIV; Extravasation
• ISSN: 1546-0843; 1555-9912
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jradnu.2018.08.001

Extravasations remain an inherent risk of power injected contrast studies despite various methods aimed at reducing these unintended events. Anecdotally, it was observed within a large radiology department that peripheral intravenous lines without blood return placed by traditional technique were more likely to be associated with an extravasation. Given that these peripheral intravenous lines appeared to pose higher risk of harm to the patient, it seemed appropriate to assess a quality-improvement measure that may reduce this risk. As dual verification is frequently used in hospitals in high-risk situations, this method was incorporated to understand its potential effectiveness on reducing extravasations.