The history of peripheral intravenous catheters: how little plastic tubes revolutionized medicine.

If the great 16 century French surgeon, Ambrose Paré, who stopped the practice of pouring boiling oil into gunshot wounds, were to return today, what would impress him most about the evolution of medicine ? We might suggest three achievements : our ability to look into any corner of the body using imaging and scoping techniques, the vast range and specificity of drugs in our current armamentarium and the omnipresence of tubes. Yes, tubes ! Nearly every hospital patient Paré would encounter would have a tube lodged in a vein, and much of the success of the first two technologies could be ascribed to these little plastic devices which have quietly revolutionized medicine. This paper will tell the story of this revolution, beginning with the fledgling attempts to exchange blood between persons in the Middle Ages through to the plastic devices of today which, in addition to delivering therapy, now protect patients from adverse events and users from bloodborne pathogens. In a follow-up paper (31) we will explore the procedures for using these devices and will suggest guidelines for best practices.