Think before you insert an intravenous catheter

Lewindon, Peter

doi:10.5694/mja13.00157

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To the Editor: Dendle and colleagues1 challenge the well established and empirically based practice of the “idle IV” — an unused peripheral intravenous catheter (PIVC) inserted in the emergency department (ED) in case it is needed subsequently, but which frequently remains unused. However, the risks associated with unused PIVCs are not the whole story.

1 Department of Gastroenterology, Royal Children’s Hospital, Brisbane, QLD.
2 University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD.

Correspondence: p.lewindon@uq.edu.au

Competing interests:

No relevant disclosures.

1. Dendle C, Stuart RL, Egerton-Warburton D. Think before you insert an intravenous catheter. Med J Aust 2013; 199: 655. <MJA full text>

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Think before you insert an intravenous catheter

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