Venous access is routine practice in emergency care, but there are no specific recommendations in intensive care units (ICUs) to manage peripheral venous access (PVA) catheters placed in emergency care. We studied the ICU strategy regarding PVA catheters set in the emergency department. We conducted telephone interviews with all the ICUs in the Paris (France) region. We included ICUs receiving adult patients from emergency care and prehospital settings. The way the ICU managed a previously placed PVA catheter was questioned. Four answers were proposed: absence or ignorance of ICU's strategy, maintenance of PVA catheter, immediate replacement, or deferred replacement.The 75 ICUs meeting the inclusion criteria were investigated. There was no standardized strategy or the strategy was ignored in 35 cases (23%). The usual practice was immediate replacement in 55 cases (37%), deferred replacement in 18 cases (12%), and maintenance in 42 cases (28%). The strategy was significantly different (P b .0001) if the patients were coming from emergency care or were previously managed in prehospital settings (Figure).Practice was highly variable, heterogeneous, and often not standardized. The results illustrate the consequences of the lack of guidelines for the initial management of PVA catheters placed in the emergency department.1 The maintenance of PVA catheters was unusual whereas no study has shown specific short-term risks associated with their maintenance.1 Furthermore, repeated punctures increase the risk of complications, are material and time consuming, and cause pain to the patient.PVA catheters placed in the emergency department were more often replaced than those placed in the prehospital setting, whereas optimal antiseptic conditions are probably more difficult to reach in the prehospital setting than in the emergency department. 2,3 Early replacement of PVA catheters should be limited to "at-risk" patients, when nonoptimal antiseptic conditions have been encountered. 1 Such conditions should be transmitted from the emergency team (prehospital or in hospital) to the ICU team.