What's going on with pulsating blood lines??

Specialties Urology

Published

What, if any, is the signicance of a pulsating blood line? Some nurses swear it means the dialyzer is about to clot, but that's not been my experiance. I think it's the resident ghost flicking it.

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Specializes in Nephrology, Dialysis, Plasmapheresis.

I see the pulsating all the time.. Don't think much of it. If it's about to clot, you make hear the clicking or sticking sound from somewhere, almost like it's trying to suck blood and can't.

I think it means nothing. Maybe the way the tubing is threaded into the dialyzer?

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Thanks, NuresRise. When I said "some nurses" that was a bit of an overstatement. It was really just one ICU nurse, but she said it with such confidence. LOL.

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

It happens often. If a line is moving around much, you need to secure it. There should not be a lot of pulsating or RBCs can be ruptured. Make sure you are threading the lines correctly and they are secured for minimal pulsating.

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Pulsating blood lines is indicative of clotting in the bloodlines and or/dialyzer. I teach home hemo on the NxStage System One Cycler and our saline line connects to our arterial line. We teach patients to open the saline clamp (to allow saline to flow into the blood line) and then to pinch the arterial line below the saline line: if the saline easily flows through the lines no clotting, if the saline "pulsates" in the line or if blood travels backwards up the saline line- that's determines clotting and treatment should be ended without returning the patients blood.

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On the plus side, at least you know if the pump is still turning. Good to know since "F" can't come up with a different alarm for low conductivity.

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Specializes in Renal Dialysis.

So I've been paying attention to this since I read this question a while back. We use the Fresenius K & T machines and the line "jumping" correlates with the blood flow pump. When the wheel leaves the outgoing part of the line hits the small gap before reaching the ingoing part of the line (working in a clockwise direction), that's when it jumps. I don't know if this is what you're referring to and I'm probably doing a horrible job at explaining it. But check out it.

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