Abstract
BACKGROUND: Thrombosis is a common yet serious complication in patients with peripherally inserted central venous catheter (PICC), the prevention of thrombosis is very important to the prognosis of PICC patients. We aimed to evaluate the effects of quantified versus willful grip exercises for the prevention of PICC-related thrombosis, to provide evidence to the clinical nursing care of PICC patients. METHODS: Two authors searched PubMed et al databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing the effects of quantified versus willful grip exercises in PICC patients up to August 31, 2022. Quality assessment and data extraction were independently performed by 2 researchers, and meta-analysis was performed using RevMan 5.3 software. RESULTS: 15 RCTs involving 1741 PICC patients were finally included in this meta-analysis. Synthesized outcomes indicated that compared with willful grip exercises, quantified grip exercises reduced the incidence of PICC-related thrombosis (odds ratio = 0.19, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.12-0.31) and infection (odds ratio = 0.30, 95% CI: 0.15-0.60) in PICC patients, increased the maximum venous velocity (mean difference = 3.02, 95% CI: 1.87-4.17) and mean blood flow (mean difference = 3.10, 95%CI: 1.57-4.62) in PICC patients (all P < .05). There were no publication biases amongst the synthesized outcomes (all P > .05). CONCLUSION: Quantified grip exercises can effectively reduce the occurrence of PICC-related thrombosis and infection, improve the venous hemodynamics. Limited by study population and regions, large-sample, and high-quality RCTs are still needed in the future to further evaluate the effects and safety of quantified grip exercises in PICC patients.