Phlebitis As each patient prepares for their stay in the hospital, majority of them will have an intravenous catheter inserted for fast and easy infusing of medications, fluids, and/or blood products when needed. Inflammation of the vein’s walls where the IV is placed on the hand or arm is termed at phlebitis. Phlebitis is the most common complication of IV infusions and occurs in 30% of patients that are receiving infusions within the hospital (Mullen & Mullen, 2007). Majority of the cases are presented in the in the forearm of dependent, elderly patients who have the indwelling catheter in longer than 48 hours. Although many studies have contradicting results on the specific causes, there are many risk factors that can increase the chances
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In more severe cases, a fever may be present. The most common complaints from a patient were pain or tenderness at the site of insertion, with a severity of 2 on a 10-point scale; The nurse is able to observe erythema 1 cm around the insertion site; swelling extending 1 cm around the insertion site; purulent discharge; or palpable a venous cord beyond the catheter tip (Maki, 2013). It is very important for the nurse to maintain a patent IV site of each patient and be observant to undesired changes. Phlebitis can causes sepsis, additional diagnostic tests to determine the cause, and supplementary treatments, it may also lead to increased duration of the hospital stay, increase the patient’s stress level, and cause financial burden, as well as increasing staff workload (Uslusoy & Mete, 2008). Nurses need to be aware of the factors that increase the likelihood of phlebitis and take appropriate measures to prevent it with continuous assessment after signs and symptoms have …show more content…
The risk factors have been divided into four main groups: patients’ characteristics, therapy administered, the health care providers’ practices, and materials used; these many different factors that can lead to phlebitis either independently or incongruent with one another. The mean age of patients that are affected by phlebitis is 75.9 years old (Salgueiro-Oliveira & Parreira, 2012). This is largely contributed to the feeble veins that elderly have. Vein quality can be contributed to many different patient characteristics as well. In many hospitals, the patients who have an IV inserted in their arm or hand are only getting their IV site assessed and flushed once per shift. There was no correlation in Salgueiro-Oliveira & Parreira’s study of the duration of the indwelling IV catheter and solely inflammation of the vein due to medications and vein integrity, although the chance of infection does rise with a duration longer than 72
In more severe cases, a fever may be present. The most common complaints from a patient were pain or tenderness at the site of insertion, with a severity of 2 on a 10-point scale; The nurse is able to observe erythema 1 cm around the insertion site; swelling extending 1 cm around the insertion site; purulent discharge; or palpable a venous cord beyond the catheter tip (Maki, 2013). It is very important for the nurse to maintain a patent IV site of each patient and be observant to undesired changes. Phlebitis can causes sepsis, additional diagnostic tests to determine the cause, and supplementary treatments, it may also lead to increased duration of the hospital stay, increase the patient’s stress level, and cause financial burden, as well as increasing staff workload (Uslusoy & Mete, 2008). Nurses need to be aware of the factors that increase the likelihood of phlebitis and take appropriate measures to prevent it with continuous assessment after signs and symptoms have …show more content…
The risk factors have been divided into four main groups: patients’ characteristics, therapy administered, the health care providers’ practices, and materials used; these many different factors that can lead to phlebitis either independently or incongruent with one another. The mean age of patients that are affected by phlebitis is 75.9 years old (Salgueiro-Oliveira & Parreira, 2012). This is largely contributed to the feeble veins that elderly have. Vein quality can be contributed to many different patient characteristics as well. In many hospitals, the patients who have an IV inserted in their arm or hand are only getting their IV site assessed and flushed once per shift. There was no correlation in Salgueiro-Oliveira & Parreira’s study of the duration of the indwelling IV catheter and solely inflammation of the vein due to medications and vein integrity, although the chance of infection does rise with a duration longer than 72