Preventing infections during ultrasound guided PIV

[Alessandro]

Any of the following infection control measures seems to be common practice for PIV catheters inserted under ultrasound guidance:

- Wipe the transducer with the same (or similar) antiseptic used to prep the skin, and use sterile gel.

- Apply dressing material to the front of the transducer (e.g. Tegaderm or similar) and use sterile gel on the outside

- Cover the transducer completely with a sterile sleeve; use normal gel inside and sterile gel outside

Which one of these methods do you use in your practice? Would you recommend in favor or against any of these? Do you do something different?

Thank you.

[picclineman]

You can use a sterile glove to cover the transducer with gel on it.. You also use saline flush vs sterile gel, it gives you the same clear picture of your veins...

[iluvivt, BSN, RN]

You can ruin a transducer if you clean it with anything other than what is recommended. We use alcohol on our BARD product and when we use the Sono-Site we use the spray cleanser for US equipment so it depends on the US unit you have. We use a sterile technique...first we locate the vein we want to use and assess it...we sometimes make a little indent on the skin with a cap..cleanse the area with CHG and allow to dry (CHG must dry completely to work well)..we have a transducer kit witha sterile gell pack ...open it....apply sterile gloves....insert the gel on the inside of the probe cover and aseptically apply the US sleeve..apply the gel to selected area....re-locate the vein and perform the venipuncture.