Skin glue which holds IV drips in the arms of patients reduces pain and has the potential to save the Australian healthcare sector millions of dollars.

Australian doctors have found a way to make one of the most common medical procedures in the world - inserting drips or intravenous lines - safer, less painful and more cost effective.

Doctors put more than 10 million IV lines in the arms of Australians every year and many of them, 29-40 per cent, fall out within 48 hours.

They also cause much discomfort to patients.

But emergency doctors at Caboolture Hospital in Queensland have successfully trialled the use of medical glue to keep IV drip lines in for longer with less pain and fewer infections.

A randomised controlled trial involving 360 adult patients, published in the journal the Annals of Emergency Medicine, found using skin glue to hold drips in place significantly reduced the need to replace them because of infection, pain, blockage or falling out.

In fact the failure rate was reduced to lower than 17 per cent.

The medical 'breakthrough' has the potential to save the Australian healthcare sector millions of dollars each year, says Dr Sean Clark, Emergency Department Acting Director at Caboolture Hospital.

"The glue made IV lines harder to unintentionally remove and was also shown to kill the bacteria that most commonly cause infections," Dr Clark said.

The other major benefit was patient comfort, he said.

Patients who took part in the trial, co-funded by Queensland Health and the non-profit Emergency Medicine Foundation, reported that the glue caused less irritation and they worried less about it falling out.

EMF chair Associate Professor Sally McCarthy says the glue would save staff time and free up valuable healthcare resources.

"The method could be simply and cost-effectively introduced in hospitals worldwide," Ass Prof McCarthy said.

The research is undergoing a cost-benefit analysis by health economists at Griffith University, with a view to rolling out the new procedure on a wide scale.