Real-time Ultrasound-Guided Internal Jugular Vein Cannulation by Oblique-Axis In-Plane: Practice at the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University.

Objective We aimed to evaluate oblique-axis in-plane (OA-IP) techniques for real-time ultrasound-guided internal jugular vein (IJV) cannulation. Methods We retrospectively analysed 1065 patients who underwent ultrasound (US)-guided IJV cannulation. We recorded demographic characteristics of patients, success rate, access time, cannulation time, number of attempts and the incidence of acute complications. Results The overall success rate of the procedure was 100% (n = 1605). In total, 1594 cases (99.3%) were successful at the first attempt, and 11 (0.7%) were successful at the second attempt; no patient required three or more attempts. The mean access time was 18.7 +/- 19.3 seconds. The mean cannulation time was 349.0 +/- 103.8 seconds. There were 54 (3.4%) acute complications out of the total 1605 cannulations: 23 cases of puncture site bleeding (1.4%), 20 cases allergic to dressing (1.3%), 10 cases of local cervical hematomas (0.6%), and one catheter misplacement (0.1%). There were no major complications 12 hours following the procedure. Conclusions The results of our study suggest that OA-IP techniques can improve ultrasound-guided IJV cannulation with a high success rate and safety in clinical practice. Clinicians should consider adopting these methods.