Mitigating complications caused by intravenous therapy: The IV patency monitoring device

Although intravenous therapy (IV) is one of the most frequently utilized approaches for fluid delivery in modern healthcare, it is associated with some form of complication up to 40% of the time. While many complications are minor, occlusion and extravasation can prevent the delivery of a needed fluid-based intervention or cause delivery into the subdermal space, which can lead to distributed tissue damage and necrosis. To address this need, this group developed the IV patency monitoring device (IVP) to generate and analyze a small pulse wave within the IV fluid. The study hypothesis was that changes in the IV's communication with the blood stream could be detected as an alteration in this signal. This study investigated wave characteristics generated by the IVP in a benchtop tissue phantom. Results demonstrated that wave characteristics change detectably between simulated patent communication with a simulated blood stream and states of extravasation or occlusion. Future work will focus on improved detection methods and integrating a real-time alert system, which will better prepare the IVP for clinical translation and impact.