Peripheral Phlebitis Related to Amiodarone Infusion

One of the major challenges encountered by acute and critical care nurses in the age of intravenous medications for rhythm control is amiodarone-related phlebitis. The first case reports of peripheral vein phlebitis related to the use of peripherally infused intravenous amiodarone appeared in an obscure letter to the editor in Chest in 1982.¹  Thirty-four years later, the problem has grown to epidemic proportions. Just in the past 5 years, amiodarone-related phlebitis was the focus of 3 articles in major nursing journals.^2–4  Amiodarone, when administered through peripheral veins, can cause severe pain and suffering for our patients, in addition to delayed discharge and the need for antibiotic therapy when infective phlebitis develops.

Despite the long-standing status of the problem, pharmaceutical companies that produce the intravenous form of the drug appear to have made no efforts to develop products that could alleviate the problem. Their solution is to...