Maintenance of peripheral venous access and its impact on the development of phlebitis: a survey of 186 catheters in a general surgery department in Portugal.

This article reports the results of a clinical audit conducted to assess the minimum requirements for safe maintenance of peripheral intravenous catheters. The audit also determined the incidence of phlebitis and attempted to establish a causal relationship between some of the variables used to assess a catheter's maintenance status and the development of phlebitis.