PATTERNS OF SUPERFICIAL VEINS IN THE CUBITAL FOSSA AND ITS VARIATIONS WITH SEX AND BODY SIDE AMONG ADULT PATIENTS IN ARBA MINCH GENERAL HOSPITAL, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA,

Abstract

Background: Superficial venous pattern in the cubital fossa shows variations in number and frequency. The variability in the patterns of superficial veins in the cubital fossa is challenging to precisely perform vein puncture especially under emergency condition. Understanding of various venous patterns in the cubital fossa may imply lower complication rate of the vein puncture. However, there is the scarcity of evidence that showing variations of cubital veins patterns in the current study area. So there is a need to conduct study on patterns of superficial veins in the cubital fossa. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess different pattern of superficial veins in the cubital fossa and to compare its variations with sex and body side among adult patients in Arba Minch General Hospital. Methods and materials: An institution based cross sectional study was conducted. Systematic random sampling technique was used to recruit the predetermined 411 study subjects. Data were collected based on observation. The data was entered in to EPI data version 4.4.3.1 and analyzed using SPSS version 25. Descriptive statistical analysis was performed. Variable which had p -value <0.05 was declared as statistical significant difference. Result: A total of 401 study participants were observed in this study giving a response rate of 98%. Superficial venous pattern in the cubital fossa of the study participants were categorized in to five different types with the percentage of 55% (Type 2), 25.7% (Type1), 10.1% (Type3), 6.6% (Type4) and 2.6% (Type5). Sex and body side were found to have statistically significant difference (p<0.05) with venous pattern. Conclusion and recommendation: The present study observed that Type 2 and Type 3 patterns were more frequent in males than females, while Type 1 and type 4 patterns were lowered in males compared to females. The observed finding in the cubital fossa also showed that the occurrences of Type 1 patterns are higher in the right hands than left hands. Health care providers should consider common and uncommon patterns of superficial veins and itvariations with sex and body side especially in under emergency condition.