Prehospital emergency care : official journal of the National Association of EMS Physicians and the National Association of State EMS Directors
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Training prehospital personnel in saphenous vein cutdown and adult intraosseous access techniques.
To compare the success rates, complication rates, and times required for paramedic students to perform saphenous vein cutdown and adult intraosseous infusion using the bone injection gun (BIG). ⋯ In a group of inexperienced paramedic students working on a preserved human cadaver model, intravenous access was gained more rapidly, with a higher success rate, and with fewer complications using the bone injection gun than by the saphenous vein cutdown procedure. Further study is needed to evaluate these procedures in the field setting and to compare their feasibility with other alternative venous access techniques such as femoral, external jugular, and central venous cannulation.