Checking A Patient's Blood Glucose In His Earlobe?

[Dazglue]

The other night we had a patient whose blood sugar was low after supper and it was checked in his fingers. After about an hour with critical low values, he was given a dose of D50 and it started to go up but it was still low. Another nurse decided to check the patient's glucose in his earlobe and it was almost doubled but was finally in the normal range. I've never seen this before and could not find this in our policy and procedures. Is this a common practice? Just wondering because I have never heard of or seen this before. I will ask my educator tomorrow but would like to know how common this practice is...Thanks.

[NurseDirtyBird]

We do this occasionally in my facility. Sometimes it's per pt. request - they want a break from sticking their fingers. Sometimes you can't get an accurate reading with someone with poor circulation in their fingers. If I can't get an accurate pulse-ox from a finger because of inadequate circulation, what makes me think I can get an accurate glucose reading from the same finger? It's the same blood that's not circulating well.

We do get an MD order to stick other body parts when fingers aren't appropriate first.

[fatigued]

Good to know. Thanks nurses.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

Anecdotal but my diabetic friend samples from his ear lobes routinely, and doses accordingly, has not had any difficulties, except his ear lobes look awful!

The point is that the testing needs to be from consistent sites...that there may be inaccuracies between sources, Consistency is key

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

The point is that the testing needs to be from consistent sites...that there may be inaccuracies between sources, Consistency is key

Bingo.

And I would think this would make a really nice evidence-based study for nursing students-- get volunteers to be the stickers and the stick-ees, teach all the stickers to do it the same way on the materials you use, get somebody to donate the supplies, and do concurrent sticks on fingers and earlobes on, say, 20 people. See how much they differ, if at all. I'd love to see those scatter diagrams.

[classicdame, MSN, EdD]

I have done this with burn patients. It is whole blood, so does not really matter where it comes from, but at home I would use the forearm.

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

Back in the day, I worked a Red Cross blood drive, and we did the hgb from an earlobe sample. It was shockingly easy to get blood and virtually painless, too!

[Nurse Leigh]

Back in the day I worked a Red Cross blood drive, and we did the hgb from an earlobe sample. It was shockingly easy to get blood and virtually painless, too![/quote']

Yep, ONE TIME my hgb was checked from the earlobe. Thought it was great because pain free compared to the finger pad. But after that they always used finger; not sure why they changed back to the finger. ◇ouch◇

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

We did my son's on his fore arm because he was so little and his fingers were hamburger. BIG mistake. The number read about 30 points lower than his fingertips. His A1c went up a whole 2 %

he won't let us do his ears. I did have a pt that we had to stick on the back of the arm d/t amputations.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

My local Red Cross used to take samples from the earlobe of donors to test for anemia. I don't know why they stopped doing it--speaking from experience, it's really painless.

So it's not unusual.

[ComeTogether, LPN]

I wonder if you could do a two for one and pierce the ear while you're at it. I'll volunteer!!

Kidding, of course.

[Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN]

Besides the issues of consistency of sampling and adherence to facility regs, wouldn't that stick be a lot more painful?

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

Besides the issues of consistency of sampling and adherence to facility regs wouldn't that stick be a lot more painful? [/quote']

Actually, the ear stick wasn't painful at all...at least not for me. That pesky finger stick hurts a hell of a lot more.