The Effect of Tapping in the Venous Dilatation for Peripheral IV Access

Peripheral intravenous cannulation (PIVC) is one of the most common interventions in medical practice. Venous dilatation is helpful for successful PIV placement. Several techniques include hot pack application, tourniquet, massaging, and tapping over the vein to increase vein caliber described in the literature. However, none of them has been rigorously studied. Therefore, there is still no 'best practice' on how to effect vein dilation in a standard way. This study aims to investigate the effect of standardized tapping on venous dilatation with a massage device compared to manual non-standardized tapping and define a standard tapping technique using a device. In this study, the investigators also aim to investigate the effect of tourniquet application with and without vein tapping effect on peripheral vein caliber as determined by ultrasound measurement.