[happylush]

Hey everyone. I have a question. When you have a patient that has a cuffed trach, are you supposed to deflate the cuff before removing the inner cannula or not, and what is the purpose of it? Trach's still confuse me and scare me little bit..... I see everyone doing things different ways in the hospital and want to now what is the right way? Do the cuffs just help prevent aspiration? Sorry... If anyone has any websites or anything with good information on trachs, it would be wonderful! Thanks in advance!

[CCU NRS]

You should not deflate the cuff, the inner cannula is a seperate piece and should be easily removed. The best thing to do is check policy in your facility and ask someone to walk you through it just to be absolutely sure about what you are doing.

[happylush]

Originally Posted by CCU NRS

You should not deflate the cuff, the inner cannula is a seperate piece and should be easily removed. The best thing to do is check policy in your facility and ask someone to walk you through it just to be absolutely sure about what you are doing.

Thanks! I thought I was doing something wrong and when I go to look up in my nursing books to see what they recommend it says " cuff must be deflated before removal of cannula" in bold print. I haven't heard the reasoning as to why it would matter, and being that it is a separate piece, I wouldn't think it would jeopardize the airway in any way by leaving it cuffed. I just got scared because my patient developed a hard time breathing right after my trach care/repositioning, etc and thought at first maybe it was something I had done, being I havent worked with too many trach's yet to feel comfortable with them completely and they still make me pretty nervous!

[kids]

Your nursing book was correct in that you would need to deflate cuff before removing the (outter) cannula, however not for removal of the inner.

You may find some of the links in this thread helpful:http://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80310

[happylush]

Originally Posted by kids-r-fun

Your nursing book was correct in that you would need to deflate cuff before removing the (outter) cannula, however not for removal of the inner.

You may find some of the links in this thread helpful:http://allnurses.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80310

Thanks for your info. I have always been afraid that even removing the outer cannula could be trouble and somehow the airway would close. I think the more I work with the trach's the more comfortable I will become and it will just take time.... thanks again!