Can children undergoing ophthalmologic examinations under anesthesia be safely anesthetized without using an IV line?

Figures & data

Table 1 IV access placement by year of procedure

Year	Total procedures	Patients anesthetized without an IV line	IV line	Central line
2003	367	320 (87%)	45	2
2004	408	378 (93%)	30	0
2005	388	361 (93%)	27	0
2006	526	487 (93%)	38	1
2007	630	579 (92%)	50	1
2008	592	556 (94%)	34	2
2009	285	268 (94%)	17	0
Total	3196	2949 (92%)	241	6

Note: Six patients came to the OR with their central lines accessed. There were 14 cases where IV access was documented on the nursing records, but review of the anesthesia record had no notation of IV access placement. There were also no recordings of medications given. We classified these cases as having no IV access placement.

Abbreviations: IV, intravenous; OR, operating room.

Table 2 IV access placement by location

Year	Number of patients with an IV line	IV access placed in OR	IV access placed prior to OR	IV start time not recorded
2003	45	38	1	6
2004	30	25	4	1
2005	27	19	2	6
2006	38	32	1	5
2007	50	46	0	4
2008	34	21	8	5
2009	17	12	5	0
Total	241	193	21	27

Abbreviations: IV, intravenous; OR, operating room.

Figure 1 Number of procedures by patient age.

Abbreviation: IV, intravenous line.

Table 3 Procedure duration (in minutes) by patient age

Age	25th percentile	50th percentile	75th percentile	Minimum	Maximum	N
<3 months	16	24	30	10	39	43
<6 months	12	18	22	3	39	127
<9 months	11	16	21	3	38	183
<1 year	10	16	22	3	39	199
1 year	10	16	21	1	39	760
2 years	10	14	19	1	39	560
3 years	9	13	17	1	38	518
4 years	9	12	16	1	35	352
5 years	9	12	16	1	39	193
6 years	11	14	17	2	33	112
7 years	12	15	19	1	37	94
8 years	11	14	18	5	35	47
9 years	12	16	21	5	33	8

Note: Patients <1 month were excluded as there were only five cases.

Figure 2 Procedure duration (in minutes) by patient age.

Abbreviations: mo, month; yr, year.

Figure 3 IV access placement as a function of procedure duration.

Abbreviation: IV, intravenous.