Do you always remove the air from IV bags?

truern · Jun 14, 2009

I always set my pumps to 25ml less than what the total volume of the bag is so I never have to worry about air in the line...little quicker in my opinion.
Tait

That's about what I do, too. I hate, hate, hate coming behind somebody that has set the pump to run ALL the IVF out of the bag leaving it and the tubing dry.

morte, LPN, LVN · Jun 14, 2009

except where mech nec., and i have never worked in those areas.....why would you? seems a potential contamination issue to me....and potential for trapping some of the liq in the bag, which of course would only be important in the case of a med....and if you have your med pb thru a main line, above the pump you can back fill.

RheatherN, ASN, RN, EMT-P · Jun 14, 2009

i agree with morte, why would you? the whole process seems not good. and i have NEVER had a problem, even when i put in 1000, because they always overfill the bags. just pay a little closer attn to your bags and pt's

-H-RN

NurseyPoo7 · Jun 14, 2009

Spike it, remove the spike, squeeze out the air and re-spike. Or, spike it, flip the bag over, squeeze out the air, flip back over while the bag remains spiked.
I only do it when priming pressure tubing.

Sounds like a great way to make everything sterile :uhoh21:

linda2097 · Jun 14, 2009

In the O.R., we usually remove IV lines from their pumps because anesthesiologists like to change the drip speed often. When using a pressure bag, it is very important to take the air out of the bag. Otherwise, you risk air embolism. It is easy to do without contaminating the fluid. Turn the bag upside down and set it on a table to steady it, spike it to open the bag, remove the spike, and then carefully while holding the bag and supporting it on the table, slowly let the air out of the bag until the fluid is about to come out, and then re-spike the bag. Now, air embolism is impossible even with a pressure bag.

Even without a pressure bag, once the bag is empty, the IV tubing will not fill with air. It's ready for a new bag.

Roy Fokker, BSN, RN · Jun 14, 2009

I almost always do*. When the bag runs out, air doesn't enter the line.

True, this air doesn't reach the patient but if I need to hang another bag, it's a pain in the butt to spike the new bag and then flush the line through to get that trapped air out.

cheers,

* Unless a patient is crashing and needs fluids NOW...

lsyorke, RN · Jun 14, 2009

Never done it, never seen it done. Proper monitoring of an IV solves the problem of a dry bag.

c_beshore_rn · Jun 14, 2009

Ive never seen air removed except in ICU when the fluids are set up for an arterial line with a pressure cuff. Or if your not using a pump and bolusing under pressure in emergency situations.

Virgo_RN, BSN, RN · Jun 14, 2009

Never done it, never seen it done. Proper monitoring of an IV solves the problem of a dry bag.

True, except for those 10 or 30 minute intermittent ABX that you just aren't able to get back to in time because something else just came up, which, on the floor with multiple patients, there is a good chance of this occurring. Then you have an IV pump beeping obnoxiously, a dry line, and a CNA coming to tell you that your IV is beeping while you're in the middle of something you can't interrupt. Purging the air wouldn't solve all of these problems, but it would solve the air in the line problem, meaning that you can reuse the tubing a couple of times without having to reprime it, which requires more steps than just spiking the new bag.

I'd love to just set up all intermittents as piggybacks with say, a 100 or 250mL bag of NS on KVO as the primary, but this is against policy at my hospital. Since we charge for saline flushes, and if you hang a bag of NS that isn't in the MAR, the hospital loses money (although the official reason I've been told is that it's because the "doctor didn't order the IVF").

So, instead, I'll be purging air from my intermittents in an attempt to save some time when spiking the next infusion. If it works well for me, I may adopt this technique into my practice. Until, of course, I find out it's against hospital policy for some idiotic reason. :madface:

cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN · Jun 14, 2009

Sounds like a great way to make everything sterile :uhoh21:

Well, first off, IV bags are not sterile. Neither is the tubing.

Secondly, if you actually read what I posted, I talked about spiking it, leaving it spiked and just pushing the air out upsdide down.

Helps to read.

Spike it, remove the spike, squeeze out the air and re-spike. Or, spike it, flip the bag over, squeeze out the air, flip back over while the bag remains spiked.
I only do it when priming pressure tubing.