From June 2007 to August 2009, 214 patients met the
eligibility criteria; all consented to the trial and 107 were
assigned to each of the treatment arms and analyzed as
such (intent-to-treat). Table 1 reports the main clinical
characteristics of enrolled patients. Main characteristics
of patients assigned to heparin or sodium chloride were
similar, including median duration of hospital stay and of
peripheral vein cannulation.