TABLE 1

Adverse events with peripheral vasopressor administration

Study type	Number of patients	Vasopressors	Dose^a	Duration	PIVC site	Events
Retrospective cohort⁸	202	Norepinephrine (72%), phenylephrine (36%)	Median initial to maximum: norepinephrine 0.04–0.13, phenylephrine 25–95 μg/minute	Median 11.5 hours, maximum 19 hours	Forearm, antecubital fossa, hand	8 events (4%), all local extravasation
Randomized controlled trial¹⁰	310 (155 early vasopressor, 155 standard treatment)	Norepinephrine (67.7%) and epinephrine (17.4%) in early vasopressor group	Median (IQR) maximum in early vasopressor group: norepinephrine 0.1 (0.05–0.18), epinephrine 0.41 (0.28–1.2)	NR	NR	6 events in early vasopressor group (3.8%): 1 skin necrosis, 5 acute limb or intestinal ischemia
Unblinded superiority trial¹¹	1,563 (782 restrictive fluid, 781 liberal fluid)	NR	NR	9.6 hours in restrictive fluid group	NR	3 events in PIVC vasopressor group (n = 500), all 3 were site extravasation
Prospective cohort¹³	64	Epinephrine (66%), norepinephrine (41%)	Median (IQR): norepinephrine 0.1 (0.01–0.48), epinephrine 0.12 (0.6–0.38)	Median (IQR) 19 hours (8.5–37)	Antecubital fossa, forearm, hand	2 events (2.9%), extravasation with local tissue swelling
Randomized controlled trial¹⁴	263 (128 PIVC, 135 CVC)	Epinephrine, norepinephrine	< 2 mg/hour, if more, crossover to CVC	NR	NR	133 total events: 56 insertion difficulty, 20 erythema, 19 extravasation, 9 catheter infection
Prospective cohort¹⁵	635	Norepinephrine	Median (IQR) maximum: 10 μg/minute (6–15)	Median (IQR) 5.8 hours (2–20)	Antecubital fossa	35 extravasation^b events (5.5%)
Retrospective cohort¹⁶	212 patients (39 PIVC, 155 PIVC followed by CVC, 18 CVC only)	Phenylephrine (41%), norepinephrine (38%)	Median (IQR) maximum in PIVC-only group: phenylephrine 0.17 (0.09–0.27), norepinephrine 0.99 (0.6–1.64)	Median (IQR) 10.5 hours (4.7–15.9) in PIVC-only group	NR	75 events (35%): 28 leakage, 25 tissued cannula, 19 extravasation, 2 erythema

↵a Dosing is given as μg/kg/minute except where noted.
↵b Other complications were not reported in this study.
CVC = central venous catheter; IQR = interquartile range; NR = not reported; PIVC = peripheral intravenous catheter