Comparison of novel anteroposterior short-axis in-plane technique with conventional short-axis out-of-plane technique for ultrasound-guided internal jugular vein cannulation: A randomized-controlled trial.

Objectives: Various ultrasound (US)-guided probe positioning and needle procedures have been described in the literature for cannulation of the internal jugular vein (IJV). In the present study, we compared the conventional short-axis out-of-plane (SAX-OOP) method with a novel anteroposterior short-axis in-plane (APSAX-IP) technique for IJV cannulation under US guidance. The APSAX-IP method of IJV cannulation has not been compared to other IJV cannulation techniques.

Methods: A total of 104 patients above 18-year-old were randomly allocated to one of two groups - APSAX-IP or SAX-OOP and evaluated for US-guided IJV cannulation in either the operating room or critical care unit. The primary outcome of this research was the access time for IJV cannulation using both approaches. The secondary outcomes were the number of attempts of needle insertion, success rate, and complications of IJV cannulation.

Results: The access time for IJV cannulation was 13.0 (12.0-15.0) sec in the APSAX-IP group and 13.0 (12.0-14.0) sec in the SAX-OOP group; P = 0.947. The number of successful 1^st attempts was 90.91%, and the 2^nd attempts were 9.09% in the APSAX-IP group and 85.19% and 14.81% in the SAX-OOP group, respectively. Both techniques did not have any complications.

Conclusions: We conclude that the US-guided APSAX-IP IJV cannulation method has comparable access time to the SAX-OOP technique.