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Abstract
Introduction: Peripheral intravenous cannula induced phlebitis is a common and significant problem in clinical practice. Objectives To compare the effectiveness of glycerine magnesium sulphate and topical heparin application and to find the association between the pre-test Visual Infusion Phlebitis (VIP) scores and selected demographic variables. Method: Quasi experimental with two group pre-test post-test design was used. This study was conducted in Bishop Benziger Hospital, Kerala for one month. Using purposive sampling technique 60 patients were selected and assigned randomly into glycerine magnesium sulphate group and heparin group. In glycerine magnesium sulphate group, glycerine magnesium sulphate paste and in heparin group topical heparin was applied over the site of phlebitis every eighth hourly for five days. VIP score was used to assess the pre-test and post-test score of both groups. Results: The findings revealed that both groups had a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test VIP score on the first, third and fifth day (p=.001). The study shows that there was a significant difference between the median post test score of glycerine magnesium sulphate group and heparin group on the third day (p= .0366) and fifth day (p value = .001). The study also shows that there was no significant association between pre-test VIP score and demographic variables. Conclusion: The study concluded that glycerine magnesium sulphate was more effective than topical heparin application in reducing the severity in patients with peripheral intravenous cannula induced phlebitis.
Keywords: Glycerine Magnesium Sulphate; Topical Heparin; Peripheral Intravenous CannulaInduced Phlebitis.
Introduction
Peripheral intravenous cannulation is a procedure in which the patient's skin is punctured with a needle to allow insertion of a temporary plastic tube into a vein. To receive the therapeutic intravenous medications, approximately 60% of hospital inpatients annually undergo peripheral intravenous cannulation (Morris & Heong, 2008). Complications such as phlebitis, thrombosis, extravasations and infiltration are the local complications associated with the insertion of the venous access device (Saini et al., 2011). Clinical signs of phlebitis are localised redness, heat and swelling, which extends further along the length of the vein, eventually leading to induration and a palpable venous cord. (McCallum & Higgins, 2012). Symptoms develop over hours to days and may resolve within a few days or weeks.
Sometimes phlebitis can be dangerous because blood clots...