POP technique for declogging PICC lines

Nurses Safety

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I have to do a presentation on a research article. The researchers are trying to prove that taking a 10cc syringe with 1mL of saline, pulling back and releasing causing a "pop" sound and then aspirating the clots will unclog a PICC line safely. I don't know how common place this is. I'm trying to figure out if anyone on here has actually done this? Or what are your opinions on this?

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Specializes in Emergency, Trauma.

Never heard of this, we use 1-2 mg of alteplase with a three-way stopcock, using a push/pull method to declog PICCs.

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Infusion, peds, informatics.

there was a thread about this in the iv nurses forum not too long ago. i'm not sure, but i don't think the consensus opinion was a good one.

i (accidentally) saw this work once when i was trying to declot with cathflo. accidentally let go of the plunger from the 10 cc syringe when i was creating a vacuum before i flipped the stopcock. clot came right off, but it was clotted again the next morning.

i would venture to guess that when it works, it is probably knocking a fibrin tail off the end of the picc. problem is, it doesn't degrade the fibrin tail, which is free to re-adhere to the end of the picc at a later time.

questions for your reasearch article:

how many times has this study been done? what was the sample size? was it done in vivo, or just in vitro?

if i'm remembering correctly, it was one study done in vitro.

cathflo may be expensive, but it is proven safe and effective.

ok, here you go, the other thread: https://allnurses.com/forums/f27/pop-technique-174801.html

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The specific article was done in vitro on 30 catheters to see if any clot material passed through the line. A prior study was done on 50 patients over 4 years by a single provider.

I personally think there needs to be a lot more research on it, due to the lack of any standardized method for performing it. To me, it looks like a very simple solution to an expensive problem. The article, itself, made it seem like nurses were actually doing this in day to day practice. I just sort of wondered what you all's opinions were.

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