Effectiveness of Normal Saline Flush on Patency of Peripheral Venous Cannula

Abstract Background: Intravenous (IV) therapy is the best way for administering fluids. Maintenance of patency of them minimises patients’ discomfort. Objective: The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of intermittent normal saline flush on the patency of peripheral venous cannula amongst patients with IV cannula. Methodology: Quasi-experimental time-series research design was adopted. Sixty patients were selected using the purposive sampling technique with random assignment. Pre-test is done for both groups at the time of insertion of the cannula with the help of observation checklist, for the experimental group, the IV cannula was flushed using 2 mL of 0.9% normal saline every 6 th hourly were as control group underwent routine hospital care. Post-tests were conducted on the 24 th , 48 th and 72 nd h after the selection of the patient. The effect of interventions was statistically analysed. Results: In the experimental group, 24 h after the selection of the patient, none of the patients had phlebitis. After 48 h, majority 86.7% had no signs of phlebitis. Moreover, after 72 h, the majority 70% had no signs of phlebitis, only few 6.7% had early stages of phlebitis. Whereas in the control group, after 72 h, majority of 46.7% had medium stages of phlebitis. Bonferroni test showing the comparison between pre- and post-test is significant at P < 0.05 level. Unpaired t -test computed between the experimental and control groups during post-test 1, post-test 2 and the post-test 3 shows the statistically significance at P < 0.001. Conclusion: Hence, the study proved that the level of patency was maintained to a remarkable extent after the administration of intermittent normal saline flushes every 6 th h.