Ultrasound-guided placement of peripherally inserted intravenous catheters increase catheter dwell time in children.

Objective: To compare the dwell times of ultrasound-guided and non-ultrasound-guided short peripheral intravenous catheters in hospitalized children.

Methods: This was a retrospective analysis of data from 256 ultrasound-guided and 287 traditional peripheral intravenous catheters placed in hospitalized children between 1 September2016 and 31 October 2016 at a free-standing children's hospital with a 10-member vascular access team. A two-sample independent test and Kaplan-Meier estimator were used to assess differences in dwell times between the ultrasound-guided peripheral intravenous catheters and non-ultrasound-guided peripheral intravenous catheters.