A Needle Guidance Device Improves the In-Plane Ultrasound-Guided Imaging in Medical Students' Education

Clinicians apply the ultrasound-guided technique to securely access blood vessels and peripheral nerves in various medical conditions. Acquiring the in-plane technique for this purpose is challenging for novice medical practitioners.

We aimed to assess whether a needle guidance device improves the needle puncture speed and the quality of the needle visualization in the ultrasound-guided in-plane technique on both horizontal and inclined surfaces by medical students, compared with freehand.

We set the following three ultrasound-guided techniques: the needle direction along the visual axis in the conditions of the horizontal plane of the phantom, the plane inclined to the right at 45 degrees, and the plane inclined to the left at 45 degrees. Right-handed 20 medical students were asked to implement ultrasound-guided punctures with and without a needle guidance device (SIVA guide™, Fuji-Medical Co., Tokyo, Japan) in the three conditions.

Under all puncture settings, the time it took to reach the set success point of the target in the ultrasound-guided punctures with the needle guidance device was less than (up to 4.14 sec (median); P<0.01) in the punctures without the device. The needle image quality score and the participants' self-assessment of the procedure difficulty score in the punctures with the needle guidance device were better than those without it.

A needle guidance device appears to improve the needle puncture speed and the quality of the needle visualization in the ultrasound-guided in-plane technique on both horizontal and inclined surfaces by novice medical students, compared with freehand.