Point-of-care Analyses of Intraosseous Blood Samples Within Critically Ill Patients

Intravenous access is sometimes difficult to achieve due to vasoconstriction or centralization of circulation. Feasible IO-access with power-driven device is a standard alternative method of vascular access for critically ill patients. It is still unclear whether results of IO samples agree with venous or arterial blood samples so that they could be used in clinical decision-making.

After intraosseous access has been established for fluid resuscitation or medication, a common practice is to aspirate a small amount of blood to verify the proper location of the IO-needle.

POC-testing can provide emergency physicians or paramedics with important information about the patients. Could bone marrow samples be used for POC-testing instead of arterial or venous blood for emergency treatment decision-making or patient allocation?

Several animal and human studies have been published to investigate the correlation between IO versus venous or arterial blood values. Investigators of this study have performed a study in healthy volunteers and discovered that there is a good agreement for some laboratory parameters (pH, gluc, lact), but for K the agreement is poor. Our study group has as well performed a study in critically ill animals investigating the agreement during cardiac arrest and resuscitation. Te evidence about critically ill people is still week.

Aim of this study is to analyze the reliability of analysis of IO samples compared to arterial blood samples within critically ill adult emergency patients.