Difficult Intravenous (IV) Access Explained by Dr. Hadzic

Difficult IV placement happens to everyone! Imagine, you are just starting your morning with the first case in OR, but your first patient comes with a 20-minute delay. As the patient is being wheeled in the OR, the nursing staff reports that the patient is late in the OR because they had difficulties with the IV. Now the patient is in the OR, without IV access. The heat is immediately on YOU, although the delay has nothing to do with you; “anesthesia delay” is often blamed for everything!

There are several different methods to facilitate an IV line placement in patients with difficult peripheral IV access. Of course, you can use ultrasound to find and cannulate a vein in a difficult patient, but this requires a considerable amount of skill, equipment, and TIME. And frankly, you would not make the surgeons happy by wheeling in an ultrasound machine when the case is already delayed. In this video, Dr. Hadzic teaches his street-smart, a surprisingly little-known technique, that is much simpler and faster than ultrasound.