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PLOS One logoLink to PLOS One
. 2022 Jan 27;17(1):e0262793. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262793

Vesicant infusates are not associated with ultrasound-guided peripheral intravenous catheter failure: A secondary analysis of existing data

Amit Bahl 1,*,#, Mahmoud Hijazi 2, Nai-Wei Chen 3,#
Editor: Miquel Vall-llosera Camps4
PMCID: PMC8794136  PMID: 35085318

Abstract

Background

Intravenous vesicants are commonly infused via peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVC) despite guidelines recommending administration via central route. The impact of these medications on PIVC failure is unclear. We aimed to assess dose-related impact of these caustic medications on ultrasound-guided (US) PIVC survivorship.

Methods

We performed a secondary analysis of a randomized control trial that compared survival of two catheters: a standard long (SL) and an ultra-long (UL) US PIVC. This study involved reviewing and recording all vesicants infusions through the PIVCs. Type and number of vesicants doses were extracted and characterized as one, two or multiple. The most commonly used vesicants were individually categorized for further analysis. The primary outcome was PIVC failure accounting for use and timing of vesicant infusates.

Results

Between October 2018 and March 2019, 257 subjects were randomized with 131 in the UL group and 126 in the SL group. Vesicants were infused in 96 (37.4%) out of 257 study participants. In multivariable time-dependent extended Cox regression analysis, there was no significant increased risk of failure due to vesicant use [adjusted hazard ratio, aHR 1.71 (95% CI 0.76–1.81) p = 0.477]. The number of vesicant doses was not significantly associated with the increased risk of PIVC failure [(1 vs 0) aHR 1.20 (95% CI 0.71–2.02) p = 0.500], [(2 vs 0) aHR 1.51 (95% CI 0.67–3.43) p = 0.320] and [(≥ 3 vs 0) aHR 0.98 (95% CI 0.50–1.92) p = 0.952].

Conclusion

Vesicant usage did not significantly increase the risk of PIVC failure even when multiple doses were needed in this investigation. Ultrasound-guided PIVCs represent a pragmatic option when vesicant therapy is anticipated. Nevertheless, it is notable that overall PIVC failure rates remain high and other safety events related to vesicant use should be considered when clinicians make vascular access decisions for patients.

Introduction

With over 300 million used annually in the United States, peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVC) are the most commonly used invasive device in the acute care setting [1,2]. It is estimated that up to 90% of patients require intravenous (IV) access during their hospitalization [35]. Unfortunately, PIVCs have high failure rates with up to 63% failing prematurely [3,6]. PIVC failure leads to significant patient harm in the form of repeated insertion attempts, treatment delays, venous depletion, prolongation of hospital stay, psychological and physical stress from needlesticks, and increased rates of nosocomial infections [710]. Further, the healthcare costs associated with complications are astounding and the financial burden of premature catheter failure is at a minimum of $1.5 billion nationally [11,12].

Certain intravenous medications categorized as vesicants and irritants are known to cause vein and local tissue injury. The Infusion Nursing Society (INS) created this list based on infusate osmolarity thresholds that increase the likelihood of these complications [13]. These medications can cause local reactions at the level of the vein precipitating vein wall injury, inflammation, thrombus formation, extravasation into the surrounding tissue and potentially lead to tissue necrosis. Premature catheter failure at a minimum is a likely consequence but patients may require additional therapies and even surgical intervention for treatment [14].

It is perceived the impact of these medications on larger proximal veins with higher flow rates and improved hemodilution diminishes the likelihood of these complications. Thus, guidelines support the use of the vesicants and most irritants via central venous lines [15]. Some recent studies have shown that these medications may be safely infused in smaller distal peripheral veins with lower flow rates, particularly many irritants [1618]. The evidence supporting the delivery of vesicant infusates via PIVCs is limited and has mixed results regarding patient safety [19]. As most studies have focused on complications, specifically extravasation, there is a paucity of evidence related to these caustic infusions and the impact on catheter survivorship. Further, the cumulative impact of multiple doses of vesicants on catheter survival and complications has not been evaluated.

We aimed to explore the impact of vesicant administration on IV catheter survival and complications for PIVCs as well as assess for differences in survival when catheters were dichotomized by length.

Methods

Study sample

The study was conducted at a large 1100 bed tertiary care center with an annual emergency department census of approximately 130,000 visits. We performed a secondary analysis of an existing single site, randomized control trial that directly compared two catheters: (1) a standard long (SL) 20-gauge 4.78 cm Becton Dickinson (BD) Insyte™ Autoguard™ IV catheter and (2) an ultra-long (UL) 20-gauge 6.35 cm B. Braun Introcan Safety® IV catheter (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03655106). The primary study was approved for adult patients at least 18 years of age with self-reported difficult vascular access (DVA) and at least one of the following: history of requiring 2 or more intravenous attempts on a previous visit, previous requirement for a rescue catheter (ultrasonographically guided intravenous catheter, midline catheter, or central venous access), end-stage renal disease and receiving dialysis, injection drug use, or sickle cell disease. Patients were excluded if they were previously enrolled, withdrew from the study, or presented when trained intravenous line inserters were unavailable. Finally, 257 participants were included for analysis. This secondary analysis from a primary study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Beaumont Health.

The research team assessed catheters for functionality at the time of insertion and daily for the life of the catheter. A functional catheter could be flushed with 5 mL of normal saline without resistance and without complication. Research staff noted whether the study catheter survived to completion of therapy or failed prematurely. If the catheter failed before the follow-up, the date, time, and reason for failure were collected from the patient’s medical record. If a patient was discharged before their follow-up, the line was presumed functional unless stated otherwise and the line removal date and time were collected from the patient’s chart. Follow-up visits included reviewing and recording all medications administered via the intravenous lines. Complications were identified during daily site assessments and chart reviews and included: phlebitis, infiltration, dislodgment, occlusion, and leaking.

Independent variables

Three scenarios related to vesicant infusates were considered on analysis. (1) Specifically, vesicants and irritant infusates as recognized by the INS were noted (S1 Appendix with list of all infusates used in study trial) and use of vesicants was characterized as yes/no. (2) Number of vesicants/irritants doses were extracted and characterized as one, two, or multiple. (3) The most commonly used vesicants were further individually categorized for further analysis and included: vancomycin, dextrose 50% solutions, and intravenous contrast for computed tomography.

Outcome variable

The primary outcome was the premature catheter failure of US PIVC.

Primary data analysis

Continuous data were shown as means (standard deviations; SD) and categorical data as frequencies (percentages). Clinical characteristics were summarized by use of vesicants and irritant infusates and compared by using t-test and χ2 test for continuous and categorical variables, respectively.

To explore the association between vesicant infusates and PIVC failure, the effect of vesicants on catheter failure was assessed with time-dependent extended survival analysis, which accounted for timing of vesicant administration. The median survival time of catheters by vesicant infusates was estimated in the modified Kaplan-Meier (K-M) survival curves (e.g., stsplit in statistical software, Stata). To examine if the effect of vesicants on catheter failure was dependent on the length of catheters (UL and SL), we initially tested the interaction term of vesicants infusates and length of catheters in Cox regression model and results indicated that the interaction was not statistically significant (ie, the effect of vesicants on catheter failure did not statistically significantly depend on length of catheters.) (S2 Appendix). Hence, in multivariable Cox regression, we refitted models without the interaction term of vesicant infusates and length of catheters to assess the effect of vesicants infusates adjusted for length of catheters only and other clinical characteristics of patients pre-specified in the original trial study [20], including age, sex, history of end-stage renal disease, body mass index, systolic blood pressure and pulse rates. We report the hazard ratio (HR) with 95% confidence interval (CI). All tests with p < 0.05 were considered to indicate statistical significance. All statistical analyses were performed with Stata 15.1 (StataCorp) and SAS v9.4 (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, NC).

Results

Between October 2018 and March 2019, 270 patients were randomized to ultra-long (135) and standard long (135) groups. After some exclusions, the final data set included 257 subjects with 131 in the UL group and 126 in the SL group. The average age was 59.2 (SD 18.4) with 71.6% female gender. Average BMI was 31.7 (SD 10.0) and 16.7% had end-stage renal disease. The average vein diameter was 0.3 cm (SD 0.1) and vein depth was 1.0 cm (SD 0.3). Vesicants were infused in 96 (37.4%) out of 257 study participants. (Table 1) Forty-four (45.8%) of catheters with vesicants failed while 50 (31.1%) of catheters without vesicants failed (p = 0.017). In the UL group, 18/41 (43.9%) failed with vesicant/irritant used compared to 23/90 (25.6%) without vesicant/irritant use. In the SL group, 26/55 (47.3%) failed with vesicant/irritant use compared to 27/71 (38.0%) without vesicant/irritant use. There was no difference in the occurrence of PIVC failure by use of vesicant/irritant across US PIVC groups (Breslow-Day-Tarone test, p = 0.409) (Table 2).

Table 1. Patient and intravenous-related characteristics stratified by use of vesicant and irritant infusates.

Vesicant and Irritant Infusates
Variables All Yes No p value
N 257 96 161
Total dose
    0 161 (62.7) 161 (100)
    1 55 (21.4) 55 (57.3)
    2 14 (5.4) 14 (14.6)
    ≥ 3 27 (10.5) 27 (28.1)
Patient characteristics
Age, years, mean (SD) 59.2 (18.4) 59.1 (17.6) 59.3 (18.8) 0.944
Sex, No. (%)
    Male 73 (28.4) 26 (27.1) 47 (29.2) 0.717
    Female 184 (71.6) 70 (72.9) 114 (70.8)
ESRD, No. (%)
    No 214 (83.3) 79 (82.3) 135 (83.9) 0.746
    Yes 43 (16.7) 17 (17.7) 26 (16.1)
BMI, kg/m2, mean (SD) 31.7 (10.0) 30.8 (9.4) 32.3 (10.3) 0.264
Systolic blood pressure, mmHg, mean (SD) 141.1 (27.9) 139.8 (27.2) 141.8 (28.4) 0.585
Diastolic blood pressure, mmHg, mean (SD) 75.2 (14.9) 75.4 (15.0) 75.1 (14.9) 0.853
Pulse rate, bpm, mean (SD) 88.9 (19.3) 90.8 (18.2) 87.9 (19.9) 0.246
Intravenous characteristics
Ultrasound-guided PIVC, No. (%)
    Standard Long, SL 126 (49.0) 55 (57.3) 71 (44.1) 0.041
    Ultra Long, UL 131 (51.0) 41 (42.7) 90 (55.9)
Depth of vein, cm, mean (SD) 1.0 (0.3) 1.0 (0.3) 1.0 (0.3) 0.989
Diameter of vein, cm, mean (SD) 0.3 (0.1) 0.3 (0.1) 0.4 (0.1) 0.119
Duration of line function, days, mean (SD) 2.6 (3.5) 3.5 (4.6) 2.1 (2.4) 0.002

SD, standard deviation; ESRD, end-stage renal disease; BMI, body mass index; PIVC, peripheral intravenous catheter.

Table 2. Summary on intravenous line failure.

Ultra Long PIVC (UL) Standard Long PIVC (SL)
Vesicant and Irritant Infusates Vesicant and Irritant Infusates
Line function Yes No Yes No
Failure 18 23 26 27
Not failure 23 67 29 44

PIVC, peripheral intravenous catheter.

In the modified K-M curves, results indicated that there was no significant difference in median survival duration in PIVC by use of vesicant/irritant [(vesicant/irritant use vs no vesicant/irritant use), 6 vs 7 days p = 0.18]. (Fig 1) In univariable time-dependent Cox regression analysis, there was no significant increased risk of failure due to vesicant use [HR 1.31 (95% CI 0.87–1.98) p = 0.195]. Similarly, in multivariable Cox model, there was no significant impact of caustic infusates on PIVC failure [adjusted hazard ratio, aHR 1.17 (95% CI 0.76–1.81) p = 0.477] (Table 3).

Fig 1. Modified Kaplan-Meier survival curve estimates by status of vesicant use for PIVC survival.

Fig 1

Table 3. Effects of any use of vesicant/irritant infusates on intravenous line failure.

Effects Model 1§ Model 2
Unadjusted HR (95% CI) p value Adjusted HR (95% CI) p value
Vesicant/Irritant Infusates (yes vs no) 1.31 (0.87–1.98) 0.195 1.17 (0.76–1.81) 0.477
Ultrasound-guided PIVC (UL vs SL) 0.45 (0.29–0.72) 0.001

PIVC, peripheral intravenous catheter; UL, ultra long; SL, standard long; BMI, body mass index; ESRD, end-stage renal disease; SBP, systolic blood pressure; HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval.

Use of vesicant/irritant infusates was time-dependent variable.

§ Model 1 only included use of vesicant/irritant infusates.

Model 2 included use of vesicant/irritant infusates, adjusted for PIVC type and other clinical characteristics including age, sex, BMI, ESRD, SBP, pulse rate, and depth of vein (S2 Appendix). Only the adjusted effects of use of vesicant/irritant infusates and PIVC type were shown.

When assessing the impact of number of doses on failure, there was no statistically significant association between catheter failure and vesicant infusate with one dose [(1 vs 0) aHR 1.20 (95% CI 0.71–2.02) p = 0.500]. Similarly, when 2 doses and ≥ 3 doses were infused, there were no statistically significant effect on the risk of IV catheter failure, respectively, [(2 vs 0) aHR 1.51 (95% CI 0.67–3.43) p = 0.320; (≥ 3 vs 0) aHR 0.98 (95% CI 0.50–1.92) p = 0.952] (Table 4).

Table 4. Effects of total dose of vesicant/irritant infusates on intravenous line failure.

Effects Model 1§ Model 2
Unadjusted HR (95% CI) p value Adjusted HR (95% CI) p value
Vesicant/Irritant Infusates
    Total dose (1 vs 0) 1.31 (0.80–2.15) 0.284 1.20 (0.71–2.02) 0.500
    Total dose (2 vs 0) 1.69 (0.76–3.75) 0.195 1.51 (0.67–3.43) 0.320
    Total dose (≥3 vs 0) 1.16 (0.61–2.20) 0.652 0.98 (0.50–1.92) 0.952
Ultrasound-guided PIVC (UL vs SL) 0.45 (0.29–0.72) 0.001

PIVC, peripheral intravenous catheter; UL, ultra long; SL, standard long; BMI, body mass index; ESRD, end-stage renal disease; SBP, systolic blood pressure; HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval.

Total dose of vesicant/irritant infusates was time-dependent variable.

§ Model 1 only included total dose of vesicant/irritant infusates.

Model 2 included total dose of vesicant/irritant infusates, adjusted for PIVC type and other clinical characteristics including age, sex, BMI, ESRD, SBP, pulse rate, and depth of vein. Only the adjusted effects of total dose of vesicant/irritant infusates and PIVC type were shown.

The three most commonly used caustic infusates were IV contrast (51), vancomycin (28), and dextrose containing solutions (14). When considering these medication types, each of the vesicant infusates had no significant effect on the risk of PIVC failure, respectively (Table 5).

Table 5. Effects of each specific vesicant/irritant infusates on intravenous line failure in separate analyses.

Effects Specific Type of Medication§
IV Contrast Vancomycin Dextrose 50%
Adjusted HR (95% CI) p value Adjusted HR (95% CI) p value Adjusted HR (95% CI) p value
Vesicant/Irritant Infusates (yes vs no) 1.32 (0.79–2.21) 0.295 1.07 (0.60–1.90) 0.824 0.78 (0.33–1.80) 0.555
Ultrasound-guided PIVC (UL vs SL) 0.45 (0.29–0.72) 0.001 0.44 (0.28–0.70) 0.001 0.44 (0.28–0.69) < 0.001

PIVC, peripheral intravenous catheter; UL, ultra long; SL, standard long; HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval.

Use of specific vesicant/irritant infusates was time-dependent variable in each separate analysis.

§ Each regression analysis included a specific vesicant/irritant infusates, PIVC type, and other clinical characteristics including age, sex, BMI, ESRD, SBP, pulse rate, and depth of vein. Only the adjusted effects of vesicant/irritant infusates and PIVC type were shown.

Phlebitis was noted on clinical assessment in 14 cases with 3 cases in the UL group and 11 cases in the SL group. No cases of phlebitis in the UL group involved vesicant/irritant use. 7 cases in the SL group were associated with vesicant use and 4 cases were not associated with vesicant use (S3 Appendix).

Limitations

Our study had several limitations. First, this investigation was conducted at a single site in a large academic suburban tertiary care center and results may not be generalizable to other settings and populations. Second, in some scenarios patients had multiple intravenous lines and it was not always clear what access point was used for the caustic infusion. Third, a number or medications were grouped together for the majority of the analysis and the impact on catheter survival and complications may be different for individual therapies. Specifically, a small number of patients received vasopressors via peripheral catheter, and the results may be limited for this class of therapies. Fourth, 96% of all catheters in this study were placed using ultrasound-guided technique in the upper arm and the risk of failure and complications due to vesicant infusion may not be the same as traditionally placed catheters or with ultrasound-guidance for alternate locations. As there is limited existing literature for all peripheral catheters on this topic, we could not exclusively focus on ultrasound-guided insertions in the discussion section. Finally, as many catheters failed outside of the daily assessment time periods, there was heavy reliance and potential inaccuracies on nursing documentation regarding line complications and etiology of failure.

Discussion

While caustic infusates are commonly delivered via peripheral catheters, the impact of this practice on catheter failure is largely unknown. In fact, as far as we are aware, this is the first investigation that has evaluated vesicant use in peripheral catheters with the primary focus on catheter failure. While on the surface results indicate that any use of caustic infusates may increase the likelihood of PIVC failure, when time of administration was considered in the survival analysis, we determined that caustic infusates did not increase the risk of PIVC failure. When assessing catheter failure by catheter length, the longer 2.5 inch catheter was less likely to experience failure than the shorter 1.88 inch catheter. While the impact of IV length on catheter failure has not previously been specifically evaluated in the setting of vesicant usage, most studies only describe short-term (less than 24 hours) infusions of vesicants with standard length PIVCs compared to longer infusion durations with longer peripheral midline catheters suggesting a benefit of longer catheters [21,22].

Interestingly, the risk of catheter failure was also not significantly impacted by the number of caustic infusate doses administered. This dose-dependent relationship of caustic infusates and complications/failure hasn’t been previously described in the current literature. In regards to specific infusates, vancomycin, non-ionic Iodine-based contrast, and dextrose 50% were the most commonly used caustic infusates in our cohort and did not significantly enhance the risk of early line failure in both catheter types. The use of vancomycin via peripheral IV route is a heavily debated topic with no clear recommendation. Mowry described increased rates of phlebitis, thrombosis, and extravasation when vancomycin is administered peripherally [15]. On the other hand, Caparas et al. found that midlines had a slightly higher rate of complications than PICC lines for short-term vancomycin treatment (less than 6 days), but found no difference in the rate of phlebitis or thrombosis [23]. Based on our results, the risk of premature PIVC failure is insignificant with these vesicants and US-guided PIVCs may be considered even when multiple doses are required.

In addition to poor catheter survival outcomes, the safety of delivering caustic infusions via PIVCs also needs consideration. Current safety guidelines on use of peripheral catheters for vesicants and irritants are vague and without clear direction. The Infusion Nursing Society standards of practice recommends cautious infusion of vesicants and irritants via peripheral route with a hard-stop only for continuous vesicant therapy [13]. The MAGIC guidelines on the other hand do not recommend the peripheral route for non-peripherally compatible infusates [24]. The limited existing literature also provides little concrete evidence regarding patient safety with this practice and is uniquely focused on the complications of extravasation and local tissue injury. In our study sample, the risk of extravasation was not insignificant. While there were 10 extravasation events, fortunately no patients required invasive therapies for treatment. Similarly, the evidence suggests extravasation events in PIVCs are not an insignificant occurrence. A systematic review assessing the safety of PIVCs for vasopressors included 1382 patients found the incidence of extravasation was 3.4% (ranging from 2.3% to 5.5%) with 5.5% in the only prospective study included in the analysis [21,25,26]. While these rates may seem low, these adverse events are still substantially more common in PIVCs compared to central venous catheters CVCs. In one large systematic review, authors found 325 distinct events of local tissue injury and/or extravasation with 318 (97.8%) events occurring in the PIVC group compare to just 7 (2.2%) events in the CVC group [1]. Notably, data exploring other complications such as phlebitis, thrombosis, and infection when vesicants are used via peripherals is sparse. To gain a more complete perspective into the safety profile of vesicant use via US-guided PIVCs, further research is required.

Vesicant usage does not significantly increase the risk of PIVC failure even when multiple doses are needed. Ultrasound-guided PIVCs represent a pragmatic option when vesicant therapy is anticipated. Nevertheless, it is notable that overall PIVC failure rates remain high and other safety events related to vesicant use should be considered when clinicians make vascular access decisions for patients.

Supporting information

S1 Appendix. List of medication use in study.

(DOCX)

S2 Appendix. Effects of variables on multivariable Cox regression models.

(DOCX)

S3 Appendix. Causes of intravenous line removal by vesicants and irritant infusates and PIVC type.

(DOCX)

Data Availability

Due to legal restrictions, data are available from the Beaumont Institutional Data Access/Ethics Committee. Please contact the corresponding author: amit.bahl@beaumont.edu or IRB administrative manager: lynne.paul@beaumont.org if you are a researcher that meets criteria for access to confidential data.

Funding Statement

The authors received no specific funding for this work.

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  • 26.Lewis T, Merchan C, Altshuler D, Papadopoulos J. Safety of the peripheral administration of Vasopressor Agents. Journal of Intensive Care Medicine. 2017;34(1):26–33. doi: 10.1177/0885066616686035 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Decision Letter 0

Sebastian Shepherd

19 Oct 2021

PONE-D-21-15885Vesicant infusates are not associated with ultrasound-guided peripheral intravenous catheter failure: A time-dependent extended analysis of a randomized controlled trialPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Bahl,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

The manuscript has been evaluated by three reviewers, and their comments are available below.

The reviewers have raised a number of concerns that need attention. They raise questions over the presentation of statistics and statistical analyses, as well as some other minor comments.

Could you please revise the manuscript to carefully address the concerns raised?

Please submit your revised manuscript by Nov 29 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

  • A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.

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If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Sebastian Shepherd

Associate Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements.

1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf.

2. Thank you for stating the following in the Competing Interests/Financial Disclosure*  section:

“I have read the journal's policy and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: AB is a paid consultant for B. Braun. He provides expertise regarding vascular access products and services. All other authors have no relevant disclosures.”

We note that one or more of the authors are employed by a commercial company: B. Braun

a. Please provide an amended Funding Statement declaring this commercial affiliation, as well as a statement regarding the Role of Funders in your study. If the funding organization did not play a role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript and only provided financial support in the form of authors' salaries and/or research materials, please review your statements relating to the author contributions, and ensure you have specifically and accurately indicated the role(s) that these authors had in your study. You can update author roles in the Author Contributions section of the online submission form.

Please also include the following statement within your amended Funding Statement.

“The funder provided support in the form of salaries for authors [insert relevant initials], but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.”

If your commercial affiliation did play a role in your study, please state and explain this role within your updated Funding Statement.

b. Please also provide an updated Competing Interests Statement declaring this commercial affiliation along with any other relevant declarations relating to employment, consultancy, patents, products in development, or marketed products, etc. 

Within your Competing Interests Statement, please confirm that this commercial affiliation does not alter your adherence to all PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials by including the following statement: "This does not alter our adherence to  PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.” (as detailed online in our guide for authors http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/competing-interests) . If this adherence statement is not accurate and  there are restrictions on sharing of data and/or materials, please state these. Please note that we cannot proceed with consideration of your article until this information has been declared.

Please include both an updated Funding Statement and Competing Interests Statement in your cover letter. We will change the online submission form on your behalf.

3. Please include a caption for figure 1.

4. Please include your tables as part of your main manuscript and remove the individual files. Please note that supplementary tables (should remain/ be uploaded) as separate "supporting information" files.

5. Please include captions for your Supporting Information files at the end of your manuscript, and update any in-text citations to match accordingly. Please see our Supporting Information guidelines for more information: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/supporting-information.

6. Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

**********

4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: PONE-D-21-15885: statistical review

SUMMARY. This is a secondary analysis of an existing randomized control trial. It estimates the influence of vesicant infusates on peripheral intravenous catheters (PIVC) failure. The core statistical analysis relies on a Cox regression model where time up to PIVC failure is the dependent variable and use of vesicant infusates is the principal time-varying covariate. Although the results are sound and the statistical methods seem generally correct, I list below some points that need clarification.

SPECIFIC POINTS

1. I didn’t find any information about the censored cases. How many censored cases do we have for each catheter type? Can we assume that censoring is not informative?

2. Table 1 displays a significant interaction between catheter type and use of infusates (p=0.041) that has not been discussed. How do the authors interpret this interaction?

3. The material relating to the Cox regression results is not fully clear. I’d welcome two tables of results, which respectively display both the Cox regression with all covariates plus the interaction term of vesicant infusates and catheter type, and the Cox regression with all the covariates but without the interaction term. It is important to see whether the covariate effects change significantly when the interaction effect is removed.

4. Cox regression models are capable of handling time-varying covariates by organizing the data as counting processes (i.e. multiple records for each subject that reflect the change of status). I don’t fully understand why the preliminary analysis that involves the Simon-Makuch method and the Mantel-Byar test is really needed here. Please clarify. In particular, I suspect that Mantel-Byar test is equivalent to the ordinary log-rank test when the data are arranged as counting processes…

Reviewer #2: Congratulations on your excellent study and clearly written manuscript. This subject area is one of great interest. While I appreciated the results reflecting extravasation incidence and non-serious outcomes, I would have liked to see a bit more data and explanation on the reasons for PIVC failure within the groups.

Reviewer #3: The authors should be congratulated, it is a well written, prepared, and presented paper, however I do have some comments.

Title: "Vesicant infusates are not associated with ultrasound-guided peripheral intravenous catheter failure: A time-dependent extended analysis of a randomized controlled trial" not sure what time-dependent extended analysis means, perhaps say 'secondary analysis'. Using failure as outcome should imply a time-to-event analysis. It may not be appropriate to mention RCT in the title, since this study was not randomised on vesicant/non-vesicant drugs. It's a secondary analysis of a dataset that happens to come from an RCT.

"Further, the healthcare costs associated with complications are astounding and the financial burden of premature catheter failure is at a minimum of $1.5 billion nationally.7,8" Perhaps also mention the impact on the patient.

Methods:

Need to mention the setting, e.g. name of hospital.

Need to specify the definition of failure, 5mL flushing was mentioned, but the determination of failure based on other signs/symptoms (e.g. pain) should be detailed. These are listed in the supplement but should be in the main text.

Over-fitting of the Cox model could be a concern at this sample size with this many co-variables, especially if the survival analysis is split. May not need to adjust for all these co-variables. Variable selection rationale should be detailed.

Results:

KM plot: should be truncated at around 7 days (remaining data are practically meaningless)

Table 1. What is 'line failure'? Is this the primary outcome? Should be moved to Table 3. Table 2 and 3 should be swapped?

Table 2. What would be the result if the vesicant variable is treated as dichotomous (not time-dependent)? A simple Cox regression?

Cannot see the descriptive statistics of the number of vesicant doses (0/1/2/3).

Discussion:

How do you explain that the effect of vesicant in Table 1 was significant but not significant in the advanced analyses? Should be in Discussion.

Please check this research poster as it may be relevant: https://metronorth.health.qld.gov.au/hhps-2020/CLIN-0111.pdf

**********

6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Nancy L Moureau

Reviewer #3: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

PLoS One. 2022 Jan 27;17(1):e0262793. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262793.r002

Author response to Decision Letter 0


11 Nov 2021

All responses to editor/reviewer comments are detailed in the author response letter. Thank you for the continued consideration.

Attachment

Submitted filename: Vesicant Manuscript_Author Response Letter.11.6.2021.AB.docx

Decision Letter 1

Miquel Vall-llosera Camps

20 Dec 2021

PONE-D-21-15885R1Vesicant infusates are not associated with ultrasound-guided peripheral intravenous catheter failure: A secondary analysis of existing dataPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Bahl,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. The reviewers are happy with the revised version of the manuscript but have pointed our some minor concerns that have to be addressed.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Feb 03 2022 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

  • A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.

  • A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.

  • An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Miquel Vall-llosera Camps

Senior Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

**********

2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: One correction: the reference to INS Standards is not correct

13 Gorski LA. The 2016 infusion therapy standards of practice. Home Healthcare Now. 2017;35(1):10–8.

The correct reference:

Gorski L, Hadaway L, Hagle M, Broadhurst D, Clare S, Kleidon T, Meyer B, Nickel B, Rowley S, Sharpe E, Alexander M. (2021) Infusion Therapy Standards of Practice, 8th Edition. Journal of Infusion Nursing. 2021;44(1S):S1-S224. doi:10.1097/NAN.0000000000000396

Reviewer #3: Thank you for addressing the points raised by the reviewers.

In the Abstract/Conclusions, the first sentence should be in past tense and words "in this study" or similar should be added.

**********

7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

Decision Letter 2

Miquel Vall-llosera Camps

6 Jan 2022

Vesicant infusates are not associated with ultrasound-guided peripheral intravenous catheter failure: A secondary analysis of existing data

PONE-D-21-15885R2

Dear Dr. Bahl,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Miquel Vall-llosera Camps

Senior Editor

PLOS ONE

Acceptance letter

Miquel Vall-llosera Camps

17 Jan 2022

PONE-D-21-15885R2

Vesicant infusates are not associated with ultrasound-guided peripheral intravenous catheter failure: A secondary analysis of existing data

Dear Dr. Bahl:

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org.

If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org.

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Dr. Miquel Vall-llosera Camps

Staff Editor

PLOS ONE

Associated Data

    This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

    Supplementary Materials

    S1 Appendix. List of medication use in study.

    (DOCX)

    S2 Appendix. Effects of variables on multivariable Cox regression models.

    (DOCX)

    S3 Appendix. Causes of intravenous line removal by vesicants and irritant infusates and PIVC type.

    (DOCX)

    Attachment

    Submitted filename: Vesicant Manuscript_Author Response Letter.11.6.2021.AB.docx

    Attachment

    Submitted filename: Author Response Letter PLOS 12.20.2021.docx

    Data Availability Statement

    Due to legal restrictions, data are available from the Beaumont Institutional Data Access/Ethics Committee. Please contact the corresponding author: amit.bahl@beaumont.edu or IRB administrative manager: lynne.paul@beaumont.org if you are a researcher that meets criteria for access to confidential data.


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