Neonatal IV glue: a large signal with a catheter-level catch

In 45,754 catheter episodes, phlebitis was 13.4% with splint alone and 3.8–4.2% with glue. The retrospective analysis did not cluster repeat lines.

THE HOT TAKE

The phlebitis signal is difficult to ignore. The denominator makes it impossible to call causal.

A newly published retrospective cohort from one 128-cot tertiary NICU compared three ways to stabilise 45,754 successfully inserted neonatal short peripheral IV catheters: splint plus catheter-specific cyanoacrylate glue (1,404 catheters), splint alone (12,006) and glue alone (32,344). Securement was chosen during routine care, not assigned by a trial protocol.