The history of intravenous therapy.

Modern IV therapy is less than a century old. Yet, it was known that medications could be injected into a vein as early as the 1600s. Because of a lack of scientific methods, original attempts to deliver IV fluids and drugs met with little success. Two world wars brought in the era of modern IV therapy. However, the greatest advance in drugs, equipment, and procedures has occurred in the past 25 years.