A new guideline from the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) aims to provide more detail for clinicians performing ultrasound-guided vascular cannulation.
Guidelines for Performing Ultrasound-Guided Vascular Cannulation: Recommendations of the American Society of Echocardiography is published in the February 2025 Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography and replaces the original guideline published by the Society on this topic in 2011.
The new document provides expert consensus on the best practices and techniques for using ultrasound in vascular access procedures.
“Ultrasound guidance is currently not a standard of care for all vascular access, but it is becoming increasingly common in daily clinical practice due to its ability to enhance success rates and reduce complications,” says lead co-author Annette Vegas, an anesthesiologist and director of Perioperative Echocardiography at Toronto General Hospital (Toronto, Canada). “Adopting the recommendations in this guideline will help clinicians better minimise risks, maximise technical competencies and ultimately, improve patient outcomes.”
The guideline uses descriptions, diagrams and ultrasound images to explain the general aspects of anatomic and ultrasound imaging of vessels, ultrasound-guided vascular cannulation techniques, and the identification of local vascular cannulation complications. Additionally, it emphasises the fundamental roles of ultrasound during vascular access, including: pre-cannulation vessel assessment, dynamic ultrasound guidance, and identification of local complications.
