Skin-traction method prevents the collapse of the internal jugular vein caused by an ultrasound probe in real-time ultrasound-assisted guidance

Purpose Real-time ultrasound-assisted guidance for catheterization of the internal jugular vein (IJV) is known to be useful, especially for a small-sized vein, which is difficult to catheterize. However, one of the problems with real-time ultrasound-assisted guidance is that the ultrasound probe itself can collapse the vein. We have developed a novel “skintraction method (STM)”, in which the puncture point of the skin over the IJV is stretched upwards with several pieces of surgical tape in the cephalad and caudal directions with the aim being to facilitate catheterization of the IJV. We examined whether this method increased the compressive force required to collapse the IJV.