I am having a hard time getting my PICC partner to stay away from the upper basilic vein when placing PIV via ultrasound. I feel that 1) I want to preserve these veins for potential PICC placements and 2) since this is a deeper vein, I am concerned about undiagnosed complications which could also ruin the vien for future line placements. I finally got her to stay away from the brachial vein when on one attempt she hit the nerve and the patient screamed and had everyone running to the bedside.
At another hospital in our group, I know that they routinely do PIV in the basilic and have pretty good success. I figure that if you need to go there, then you probably just need to put in at least a midline. I do go to the cepalic upper arm as I pretty much avoid that vein for picc placements anyway. I guess that I am just biding my time untill more literature is out there on this subject. I know this subject has been controversial in past topics but not that much conversation on exactly where -what veins -everyone is placing these PIV's when using ultrasound.Â
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