[kmcourt66]

In our dialysis unit we aspirate 5cc from both ports of catheter, draw any other lab we need then hook up arterial catheter let the blood run round and before hooking up venous port draw PT/INR from arterial lumen from blood line then hook them up and instilled the heparin load in the venous lumen. results are never crazy that way. but every unit has their own way to do things.

[mmurphy]

our units draw PT/INR's from cath patiens this way.

We place the patient on the machine after aspirating 5-10ml of blood from each cath. lumen. We then flush the lumen with NSS and begin the dialysis. We then withold the heparin oading dose for 10 minutes at the beginning of the treatment. After 10 minutes, we draw the PT/INR or PRR from the arterial line. After the blood is drawn we begin give the heaprin loading dose and begin the infusion as ordered. This sems to work for us. However, the only way to get an accurate PT?PTT froma cath patient would be to do a peripherdraw. Our patients go through enough. And this procedure of described above seems to be a fair compromise. If we get a questionable result, we then do a peripheral stick for the PT/PTT pre dilysis.