Effects of Venous Remaining Needle Sealing with Heparin vs. Saline in China:A Meta-Analysis

Objective To evaluate the effects of peripheral venous remaining needle sealing with heparin vs.saline in China.Methods A comprehensive,systematic bibliographic search of medical literature from databases of CNKI(1994 to December,2009) and Wanfang(1990 to December,2009) was conducted to identify randomized controlled trials(RCTs) related to catheter sealing with saline vs.heparin.The remaining time of venous needle,the incidence of phlebitis and the catheter blockage were compared,and the quality of RCTs was assessed and meta-analyses were conducted by RevMan 5.0 software.Results Nine RCTs involving 1 770 patients were included.The results of meta-analyses showed that:a) There was a significant difference between heparin sealing and saline sealing in catheter blockage(OR=0.44,95%CI 0.32 to 0.62,P0.05).The heparin sealing was much better to prevent catheter blockage;b) There was no significant difference between saline sealing and heparin sealing in the incidence of phlebitis(OR=1.26,95%CI 0.64 to 2.50,P0.05);and c) The average remaining time of venous catheter between saline sealing and heparin sealing had significant difference(WMD=0.24,95%CI 0.04 to 0.43,P0.05).Heparin sealing had better effect than saline sealing.Conclusion The meta-analyses of current medical literature in China show that heparin sealing can reduce the incidence of catheter blockage and prolong the remaining time of catheter,although there is no significant effect in the aspect of the incidence of phlebitis.