Background: Ultrasound guided peripheral intravenous access (USGPIV) has derived benefits for the Emergency and Pre-hospital
Management. However, no studies have yet been conducted that have focused upon Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel
in Thailand.
Objective: To introduce USGPIV cannulation to the health care providers of Emergency Medical Services and to examine the success
rates of the first attempts at PIV cannulation.
Materials and Methods: This prospective observational study was conducted with 49 EMS providers in August 2020. All respondents
had been participants in a USGPIV workshop. Afterwards, the participants’ skills were evaluated in a Pre-hospital simulation model,
which was conducted in a moving ambulance. The data, which was recorded, noted the number of attempts required to successfully
obtain USGPIV access, as well as the participants’ opinions about using ultrasound in this procedure.
Results: Among the 49 participants, the first attempt success rate was found to be at 57.14%. The participants’ genders, their years
of work experience, their experience of performing PIV with real patients, and the categories of the Emergency Medical Services
health care providers were determined not to be factors that had contributed to the success rate of the first attempts at USGPIV. Our
study demonstrated a “High” level of satisfaction with regard to performing USGPIV with this ultrasound device (4 out of 5).
However, the participants noted that some elements of the environment in the ambulance may have affected the success rate of
performing this procedure.
Conclusion: In this study, the success rate of the first attempts was found to be lower than in other studies. However, in regard to
this simulation, implementing this procedure represents the first step towards assisting Thai EMS personnel to perform ultrasound
procedures.
Keywords: Ultrasound, Peripheral IV cannulation, Emergency medicine, Emergency medical services, Emergency medical personnel