Preference Of the Ventrogluteal Region in Intramuscular Injection in Children: Systematic Review

Aim: Drug administration, particularly in children, is a crucial practice of nurses that requires follow up to evidence-based practices. When administering drugs via intramuscular (IM) injection, nurses need to consider several factors, including the child's age, weight, distance of the injection site from major nerves and blood vessels, muscle mass, and ease of identification of the injection site. This systematic review aims to evaluate the safety of the ventrogluteal (VG) region in children. Material and Methods: This systematic review includes research conducted in the English language between January 2000 and July 2021. A comprehensive search using the keywords 'ventrogluteal, intramuscular' was conducted on Pubmed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, and Wiley databases, resulting in the identification of 963 studies. Thirteen studies were selected for this systematic review based on our inclusion criteria. Results: In this review, outcomes of the 13 studies that met the criteria, were grouped under three main headings as vaccine, muscle thickness and complications of IM injection. The studies (n=4) under the headings of vaccine focused on immunological response of vaccine, parental acceptability of the vaccine administered via VG region, and side effects of vaccines. The studies (n=4) under the headings of muscle thickness focused on thickness of the muscle layer. The studies (n=5) under the headings of complications of IM injection focused on sciatic nerve injuries and local and systemic side effects. Conclusion: The ventrogluteal area for IM is less risky in terms of iatrogenic nerve injury and local and systemic side effects in all age groups. However, in line with the results of these studies, more studies are needed to determine safety use of VG for IM injection.