Usefulness of new non-cuffed catheters for improving blood flow

Due to the introduction of new non-cuffed catheters, we performed a comparative study examining the frequency of insufficient blood flow and the indwelling duration between patients that were treated with conventional catheters and those that were treated with the new catheters. We retrospectively studied the frequency of insufficient blood flow in patients that received catheter treatment between January 2015 and February 2016, in whom 148 catheters were used. Insufficient blood flow was defined as when the catheter connection had to be reversed. We defined the patients treated with conventional catheters as group A, and the remaining patients as group B. As for the backgrounds of the two groups, the frequency of internal jugular vein placement was significantly higher in group A than in group B (p=0.004). Insufficient blood flow occurred in 29.7% of all 148 catheters and was significantly less common in group B (19.0%) than in group A (37.6%) (p=0.014). Insufficient blood flow was also significantly less common in group B than in group A after femoral vein placement (p=0.005). There were no significant intergroup differences in the indwelling period (p=0.904), but catheter changes due to various problems were significantly less common in group B (p=0.024). The new catheters significantly reduced the frequency of insufficient blood flow. In addition, the new catheters were suggested to be especially useful for femoral vein placement.