Difficult Intravenous Access and Its Management

Difficult intravenous access (DIVA) may occur due to several factors, such as the demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients (age, sex, height, weight, ethnicity, IV drugs history, and medical history), health professional’s experience, device characteristics, site of insertion, and vein characteristics. Difficult intravenous access leads to repeated insertion attempts that might prove to be uncomfortable for the patients, frustrating and challenging for the health professionals, and expensive for the health institutions. The practitioners must develop the awareness of the factors capable of increasing the difficulty of defining the appropriate vein for cannulation through their varied experiences with vein location and vascular access.