Resistance to fluid flow in veins.

We evaluated the resistance to fluid infusion in the veins of 118 adult patients after intravenous catheter insertion prior to elective surgery. Hydraulic resistance in veins was defined as the slope of the pressure-flow relationship obtained by measuring venous pressure at several fluid flow rates. A resistance unit (RU) was defined as 1 mmHg/L/hr. Resistance in veins ranged from -12.1 to 732 RU, with 50th and 95th percentiles being 22 and 198 RU, respectively. Venous resistance was not significantly affected by site of catheter insertion, tissue characteristics at the insertion site, age, sex, patient anxiety, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status, or catheter size. This report provides a distribution of resistance to fluid infusion in arm veins of adult patients.

Detection of intravenous fluid extravasation using resistance measurements.

Resistance to fluid infusion can be derived from measurements of pressure at two or more flow rates. We measured resistance in 31 patients using a pressure-monitoring infusion pump (Model 560, IVAC) by recording pressure at five flow rates (0, 50, 100, 200, and 300 mL/hr), and computing resistance as the slope of the pressure versus flow curve. Resistance was measured subcutaneously (Rtissue) and intravenously (Rvein) immediately after unsuccessful or successful IV catheter placement. In all patients, Rtissue was always greater than Rvein. The difference ranged from 23 resistance units (RU) to 4166 RU, with a mean difference of 1147 RU (p < 0.0001, Student's t-test). Unpaired analysis of the data was performed to assess the ability of resistance to indicate extravasation in the absence of prior Rvein measurement. The median value for Rvein was 62 RU (range -13.6 to 420 RU), and for Rtissue, 544 RU (range 65.7 to 4170 RU). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that a 200-RU threshold detected infiltration with 0.90 sensitivity and 0.91 specificity. We conclude that elevated resistance during fluid infusion is an important early and easily measurable finding in fluid extravasation.