Comparison of success rate of abducted and neutral arm position for right infraclavicular subclavian vein cannulation under real-time ultrasound guidance in patients undergoing elective neurosurgery under general anesthesia.

Background: Classically subclavian vein catheterization is done in neutral arm position; recently, it has been done in different arm positions to compare success rate and catheter misplacement. There is a paucity of literature for comparing abducted and neutral arm position for right infraclavicular subclavian vein cannulation.

Aim: Comparison of success rate of abducted and neutral arm position for right infraclavicular subclavian vein cannulation under real-time ultrasound guidance in patients undergoing elective neurosurgery under general anesthesia.

Design: Randomized comparative study.

Materials and methods: After approval from Institutional Review Board and Ethical Committee, 100 patients of 18-70 years of age, of either sex, posted for elective neurosurgery under general anesthesia, requiring right subclavian vein cannulation were included in our study. They were randomly divided into two groups: abducted arm position (group 1-AG) and neutral arm position (group 2-NG) using sealed envelope technique.

Results: First attempt success rate was higher in AG group compared to NG group (P value- 0.741). Times taken (seconds) for cannulation in NG and AG group, catheter misplacement and hematoma (P value- 0.37, P value- 0.37, P value- 1, respectively) were lesser in AG Group.

Conclusion: For USG-guided infraclavicular subclavian vein cannulation, abducted arm position, and neutral arm position in terms of first attempt success rate, number of attempts and associated complications has comparable results; however, further studies with larger group of patients are required to assess the overall advantage of abducted arm position over neutral arm position.