An in vitro study to evaluate the utility of the "air test" to infer

J Ultrasound Med · Mar 2013

An in vitro study to evaluate the utility of the "air test" to infer perineural catheter tip location.

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.

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- Jack M Kan, T Kyle Harrison, T Edward Kim, Steven K Howard, Alex Kou, and Edward R Mariano.
- Department of Anesthesia, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA.
- J Ultrasound Med. 2013 Mar 1;32(3):529-33.
AbstractInjection 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.

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An in vitro study to evaluate the utility of the "air test" to infer perineural catheter tip location.

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