Flushing in Peripheral intravenous catheters (FliP): A pilot, randomised controlled trial of high versus low frequencies and volumes in patients with a peripheral venous catheter.

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Venous cannulation via peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVC) is the simplest and most frequently used method for drug, fluid and blood product administration. Researchers estimate that up to 70% of patients in acute care hospitals require a PIVC. However, PIVC are associated with inherent complications which can be mechanical or infectious. Failure rates of these devices is unacceptably high, affecting up to 40% of patients receiving this therapy. Of these, 30% failed due to occlusion and infiltration (fluids into surrounding tissues) meaning patients had to have the PIVC replaced, which has implications for patient comfort, therapy and health care costs.There have been a range of strategies developed to prevent or reduce PIVC related complications including flushing regimes to maintain PIVC patency. However, current flushing practice is widely varied, with poor outcomes. There is little evidence that flushing of PIVC is actually happening in practice. To achieve best and evidence based practice it imperative that trial research is conducted to establish the best regime for maintaining PIVC patency. The study aims to establish the feasibility of conducting a four arm, factorial, randomized trial evaluating the efficacy and cost effectiveness of different flushing frequencies and volumes.