meds through a swan

[newbie'13]

I am in my first year of nursing and work in cv stepdown. We never have swans but I was wondering if you can give meds through one. The catheter is in the PA but it's really not much farther in than a CVL. Obviously you wouldn't give anything through the balloon port and I understand why you don't give meds through a regular artery. Thanks for your help!

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Yes you can infuse through a Swan Ganz catheter/PA line.

First the introducer/sheath or Cordis which can be used for an infusion. The Swan is threaded through the port catheter itself and where the stop cock is can be used for infusions

The swan itself has several ports. They vary a little on whether it is a paceport swan or not.

The large red capped port is what is connected for temp. It is never used for infusion. The balloon port (red) is never used for infusion either. Your proximal CVP port/inject blue port is used for CO and infusions as well as monitoring the CVP. The yellow distal port PA monitoring port is never used for infusions (well almost never but you don't need to know that ). The clear port with the orange end is a pacer port...when a pacer is not in use it can be used for infusions.

[newbie'13]

Ok thanks!

[Wile E Coyote, ASN, RN]

There are Swans with varied numbers and configurations of ports, some have pacing ports as mentioned, some have dedicated infusion ports (white proximal infusion port), etc. Mosey over to the icu and take a peek at what your facility uses. Ask if they have saved some they use for education purposes.

[tcvnurse, BSN, RN]

At my hospital we use the white port of the swan for our pressers. We call it 'The VIP' port, LOL. Love it!

[delphine22]

Your proximal CVP port/inject blue port is used for CO and infusions as well as monitoring the CVP. The yellow distal port PA monitoring port is never used for infusions (well almost never but you don't need to know that ).

Just took our facility's Swan class today (haven't used one yet), they said we could use the proximal injectate port for push meds (Lasix, morphine, etc) but shouldn't use for infusions, especially pressors, because when we check CO we end up flushing a bolus through. Ours typically don't have an additional proximal infusion port, just the PA transducer line, so I guess we're supposed to run our stuff through the Aline instead (or I suppose the Cordis would be fine).