Hemodynamics, fluids & transfusion
Incidence of peripheral arterial catheter failure and complications in intensive care: a systematic review and meta‐analysis
Authors' conclusion
Arterial catheter failure occurs in up to one in five catheters in intensive care.
Study context
- Population
- Adults with arterial catheters in ICU
- Participants
- 19,018 adults · 39 studies
- Outcome
- Incidence of arterial catheter-related complications and failure
Methodological detailsrandom-effects models, Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation, GRADE certainty assessment, Incidence density not calculable due to limited reporting of total catheter days
- Random-effects models
- Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation
- GRADE certainty assessment
- Incidence density not calculable due to limited reporting of total catheter days
Pooled result
As reported in the abstract
Arterial catheter failure
All-cause arterial catheter failure, pooled proportion
13.0%
95% CI 7.6–19.5%, moderate certainty
Non-infectious arterial catheter failure
19.8%
95% CI 12.2–28.7%, moderate certainty
Safety
- All-cause catheter-associated or related bloodstream infections, pooled proportion
- 1.3% (95% CI 0.7-2.1%, moderate certainty)
- Local infection
- 1.2% (95% CI 0.4-2.4%, high certainty)
- Reporting of infection definitions limited
Original publication
Incidence of peripheral arterial catheter failure and complications in intensive care: a systematic review and meta‐analysis. Anaesthesia. Published 3 November 2025. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →