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An In Vitro Study to Evaluate the Utility of the “Air Test” to Infer Perineural Catheter Tip Location
Author(s) -
Kan Jack M.,
Harrison T. Kyle,
Kim T. Edward,
Howard Steven K.,
Kou Alex,
Mariano Edward R.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of ultrasound in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.574
H-Index - 91
eISSN - 1550-9613
pISSN - 0278-4297
DOI - 10.7863/jum.2013.32.3.529
Subject(s) - medicine , catheter , ultrasound , test (biology) , position (finance) , medical physics , surgery , radiology , paleontology , finance , economics , biology
Injection of air under ultrasound guidance via a perineural catheter after insertion (“air test”) has been described as a means to infer placement accuracy, yet this test has never been rigorously evaluated. We tested the hypothesis that the air test predicts accurate catheter location greater than chance and determined the test's sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values using a porcine‐bovine model and blinded expert in ultrasound‐guided regional anesthesia. The air test improved the expert clinician's assessment of catheter tip position compared to chance, but there was no difference when compared to direct visualization of the catheter without air injection.