Abstract
Inserting needles into veins is fundamental to medical care with up to 90% of inpatients requiring a peripheral intravenous catheter/cannula (PIVC) during their stay. Yet 40%-50% of PIVC insertions fail on the first attempt. Here, we present an easy-to-use novel vein visualizing ultrasound prototype device and data from in vitro and in vivo performance. Our prototype’s locational accuracy in simulated forearm veins is 0.16mm ±1.63mm (s.d.) (97.8% agreement to the ground truth, p<.001), across variations of vein diameter (3-5mm), depth (10-20mm), and velocity (10-100mm/s). Usability trials conducted with nine clinicians found that 100% of users were able to handle the prototype in a sterile manner with minimal assistance. In 80 forearm scans of 40 volunteers, sensitivity was excellent to both find veins (94%). In comparison, sensitivity of vein finding using landmark technique with torniquet (visible 46% and palpable 74%) were far inferior. The prototype is a novel ultrasound device which empowers clinicians to detect and visualize well-perfused veins at depth in the coronal view of vein pathways whilst enabling, ultra portability, accessibility and ease of use.