Light-emitting Diode Vein Finding Device in Facilitating Peripheral Intravenous Cannulation in Children: A Randomised Clinical Study

Introduction: Peripheral venous cannulation in the paediatric age group is always a challenging task. The transillumination technique improves the visualization of veins. The Light Emitting Diode (LED) vein finder device is based on the side transillumination principle. Aim: To evaluate the role of transilluminating LED vein finder device (Optramed Vein-Lite), for peripheral intravenous cannulation in children with respect to ease of cannulation, time taken and number of attempts. Materials and Methods: This randomised clinical study was conducted in Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, Haryana, India, from January 2018 to January 2020. Total 130 patients, age <3 years, of either sex, and scheduled for surgery under general anaesthesia were included in the study. They were randomised into two groups. Group I (n=65) where venous cannulation was done using a transilluminating LED vein finder device, and group II (n=65) where venous cannulation was done after visualising and palpating the vein manually (conventional technique). Both the groups were compared with respect to the Difficult intravenous access (DIVA) score, number of attempts, ease of intravenous cannulation (cannulation on first or second attempt as ‘easy’, more than two attempts as ‘difficult’ cannulation) and time required for intravenous cannulation. The qualitative variables were expressed as frequencies/percentages and compared using the Chi-square test. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The mean age of the population in group I was 17±13 months, and in group II was 15±23 months (p-value=0.5427). There was a significant variation with respect to the number of attempts; the first attempt success was 90.7% in group I vs 63% in group II (p-value= 0.0014). In group I, cannulation was easy in 95% of patients while in group II only 76.9% of patients had easy cannulation (p-value=0.0018). Time taken for intravenous cannulation in group I was 19.385±6.2015 sec and in group II was 22.886±11.6716 sec (p-value=0.0346). Conclusion: Transillumination is a useful technique to improve the success rate of peripheral venous cannulation in infants and children.