Lisa Dougherty and Catherine Oakley report how chemotherapy nurses in south London have been trained in the flush-out technique

Extravasation is a complication of chemotherapy that occurs when a vesicant drug is accidentally administered into the tissue surrounding the intravenous access device. This may happen where chemotherapy drugs are administered via a peripheral or central venous catheter. The result can be necrosis with associated trauma and pain for the patient, but management is varied and the evidence base is poor. There has been increasing interest in the flush-out technique, which aims to flush the drug out of the tissues. This technique has been developed and carried out by plastic surgeons in the UK. The project described in this article involved working with the plastic surgical team to train nurses in the flush-out technique with the aim of offering more timely interventions and less inconvenience for patients. The technique has been successfully introduced in south west London with recent implementation in the South East London Cancer Network.