Central Venous Catheter Insertion Techniques

Central venous cannulation (CVC) is the cannulation of a large central vein in neck (internal jugular vein), chest (subclavian or axillary) or groin (femoral vein). It is a standard clinical method performed for the monitoring of central venous pressure, temporary haemodialysis, drug administration (drugs irritating peripheral veins, chemotherapy, concentrated vasoactive drugs ) rapid infusion of fluids, inadequate peripheral intravenous access and sampling site for repeated blood sampling. There are different techniques for Central venous cannulation which include anatomical landmark and ultrasound guided (USG) technique. Previous studies have shown that the successful IJV cannulation using anatomical landmark technique was 85% as compared to ultrasound guided IJV cannulation which was 95%.The median catheterisation time of internal jugular vein via ultrasound guided (USG) is shorter than anatomical landmark technique. There has been little evidence regarding the use of ultrasound guidance for internal jugular vein cannulation at a tertiary care hospital in our population. Furthermore with widespread availability of ultrasound, Internal Jugular vein can be successfully cannulated with decreasing number of attempts, less time consumption and decrease in the incidence of complications.