Does anyone use the REDSENSE MONITORS in your units for alert for dislodged needle access?

I have not heard of these so did a search:

Redsense is an alarm system for monitoring the vein needle during hemodialysis by detecting blood loss from the human body.

During hemodialysis, blood is drawn and cleaned from the patient's artery and circulated in a dialysis machine. Clean blood is returned to the body via the venous needle.

Redsense was initiated when nurses at the Swedish county hospital in Halmstad in 2004 witnessed occasional venous needle dislodgement during hemodialysis. Realizing that these incidents were not unique, the hospital asked medical innovation consultants to address the problem. This led to the creation of the company Redsense Medical and the development of the Redsense Medical device for blood loss detection.

"If the venous needle becomes dislodged, the dialysis machine will continue to draw blood from the patient's artery vein but returns no clean blood to the body. It takes only a few minutes before the dislodgement can have serious, even fatal consequences. The needle dislodgement can result in heavy blood loss, hypo-volemic shock, and death," said the representatives from Redsense.

"The design team took a user-centric approach to design and developed a blood loss detection device."

The device comprises of two parts: a sensor patch and an alarm unit. An infrared signal is transmitted from the alarm unit to a single use sensor patch, which continuously monitors the venous needle access point. If vein needle dislodgement occurs, the sensor triggers an alarm.

The alarm unit clips onto the patient's clothing and an infrared signal is transmitted through a fiber-optic cable to a single-use sensor patch, which continuously monitors the venous needle access point. If bleeding occurs, the sensor triggers an alarm.

"Approximately 1.7 million dialysis patients worldwide are given more than 200 million dialysis treatments every year. An aging demographic and type II diabetes will cause patient numbers to grow. Patients can now sleep and move safely in the knowledge that dislodgement of their venous needle, if it occurs, will be detected. Nurses can move freely around the unit with peace of mind.

REDSENSE

I know about them, we have been mandated to use, just wondering if anyone ever have problems with them.

We've never used them, but I saw an article somewhere that said all VA hospitals were going to "require" them (not sure if this has gone into effect yet?).

Yes, it has. Just wondering if anyone heard of any issues with them anywhere.

Are they for home hemo use? In-center?

With the bundle starting in Jan, I don't see any of the big dialysis companies wanting to take on extra expense that they won't get paid for.

Redsense is in fact a requirement now by VA facilities conducting hemodialysis as of November 1, 2010.

My clinic did a 1 month trial study on the Redsense back in 2007, prior to them being FDA approved.

They never alarmed! We even tried making them alarm by squirting blood into the sensor and it still did not alarm.

We boxed them up and sent them back to Sweden.

Maybe the company improved them since 2007, but back then they were JUNK!