Is there an acceptable rate of DVT'sthat occur with PICC lines. We all know that it occurs. At what percentage  should we become alarmed? Does AVA or INS publish or have standards regrding this?
This seems to represent the percentage of the total number of catheters in a given study. Since this is from SIR, I would also want to know how they arrived at this number, what catheter types were included, and the length of dwell for each type of catheter. A percentage can be misleading. It seems to me that it would be more meaningful if a benchmark were expressed as the number of incidences per device days to account for those that occur immediately and those that are not clinically evident for months or years. This leads to another thought also - the vast majority of catheter-related thromboses are clinically silent. So does this number represent only those that presented with clinical signs and symptoms or did they screen all patients? Lynn
If we went with unsymptomatic it would be probably be as high as 70% of all CVC's placed and not just PICC lines
They did cite references used to establish this benchmark
I can e-mail you a copy Lynn if you want to read it
I know I have read some of the studies cited and the thrombosis predominantly occurs that was symptomatic within the first two weeks of dwell time. That is a common theme in the literature suggesting the patient is pre-disposed
Society of Interventional Radiology (SIR) benchmark guidelines of 2004 after 6%
kathy
Kathy Kokotis
Bard Access Systems
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, NPD-BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861
Clinically symptomatic not unsymptomatic.
If we went with unsymptomatic it would be probably be as high as 70% of all CVC's placed and not just PICC lines
They did cite references used to establish this benchmark
I can e-mail you a copy Lynn if you want to read it
I know I have read some of the studies cited and the thrombosis predominantly occurs that was symptomatic within the first two weeks of dwell time. That is a common theme in the literature suggesting the patient is pre-disposed
Kathy
Kathy Kokotis
Bard Access Systems