Subclavian vein catheterization: Supraclavicular versus infraclavicular approach

Objective: to compare the success of supraclavicular and infraclavicular approaches for subclavian vein cannulation. material and methods: this study was conducted in department of anaesthesia & surgical icu of khyber teaching hospital and rehman medical institute,peshawar. a total of 139 adult patients of either sex,undergoing central venous cannulation for various indications,were included in the study. random allocation was done in two groups by lottery method. group a (n=69) patients were cannulated by supraclavicular approach while patients in group b (n=69) by infraclavicular approach. all the procedures were done by experienced anesthetists. variables for comparison taken were success and failure rates on first attempt without any major or minor complications. results: in both groups,sex and age were in significant with p-values of 0.446 and 0.264 respectively. efficacy in terms of success rate shows that supraclavicular approach was successful as compared to infraclavicular approach and was highly significant with p-values of 0.016 by statistical analysis was done by chi square test. conclusion: subclavian vein catherterization via the supraclavicular approach is an easy method of central venous access irrespective of age and gender. © 2008 khyber medical college peshawar.