ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Neonatology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2025.1655820
This article is part of the Research TopicPOCUS for Neonates: Advancing Care with Point-of-Care UltrasoundView all 10 articles
Real-Time Ultrasound Guidance Improves Neonatal Umbilical Venous Catheter Placement Efficiency and Reduces Liver Complications
Provisionally accepted
Anna Tomaszkiewicz1*
Piotr Kruczek2
Piotr Szymański2
Krystian Walczak2Piotr Teplicki2
Alina Sobczak2
Jan Lukasz Mazela1- 1Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznań, Poland
- 2Neonatology, R. Czerwiakowski Hospital, Kraków, Poland
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This study evaluated the effectiveness and safety of real-time ultrasound guidance during the insertion of umbilical venous catheters (UVC) in neonates admitted to a tertiary neonatal intensive care unit. Over an 18-month period, we retrospectively analysed medical records of 305 neonates undergoing ultrasound-guided UVC placement. The primary outcome was the rate of successful catheter placement; secondary outcomes included acute catheter-related complications, notably liver injury. Ultrasound guidance facilitated correct catheter placement in 86.56% of cases, with efficiency improving over time from 83.81% to 89.12%. Only one case of hepatic haematoma was observed, highlighting a minimal complication rate. Our results demonstrate that intra-procedural ultrasound significantly enhances insertion success rates and reduces the incidence of catheter-related liver injury. Further research is needed to explore the benefits of continuous ultrasound monitoring for prolonged UVC use.
Keywords: Umbilical venous catheter, Thrombosis, neonatal intensive care, Central catheters, ultrasound
Received: 28 Jun 2025; Accepted: 30 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tomaszkiewicz, Kruczek, Szymański, Walczak, Teplicki, Sobczak and Mazela. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Anna Tomaszkiewicz, tomaszkiewicz.annamaria@gmail.com
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