Nighat Aziz, Aurangzeb Khan, Javed Iqbal.
Subclavian vein catheterization: supraclavicular versus infraclavicular approach.
J Med Sci Jan ;21(4):187-9.

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.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com