Syringe suctioning a peg tube

Specialties Private Duty

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I'm looking after a 15 yr old with cystic fibrosis, cerebral palsy resulting in severe global intellectual and developmental disability, she has a peg tube for feeds (2 cal) but also does take oral food.. She often brings up copious amounts of mucous but swallows it before she spits it out. We have no wall suction to assist before she swallows it and she ends up vomiting the mucous back up.. I've started attaching a 60ml syringe to her peg site in the morning before breakfast and suctioning out the mucous.. So far that's been working well and we've been getting more food into her orally before school.. Today on of the RN's who works with me told me she doesn't think it's a good idea to do this but couldn't give me a reason why.. I'm currently researching the whole thing and I can't find any direct contraindications apart from possible damage to the mucous membranes, But no blood in stool or vomit.she is a unique case in many ways and I feel that it's doing her good, the most I've removed is 60mls of almost straight mucous with small amounts of the 60ml flush that I've administered after her feed her finished.. I usually get her in the shower and do chest and back percussion to loosen the mucous, followed by an ordered 5ml hypersaline nebuliser. I wait at least 30 mins after her 2 cal feed has finished before I attempt to pull out the mucous. Any ideas? Any ideas where I might ask more questions? I was thinking of ringing westmead children's hospital and asking for a gastronomy RN for advice or contacting someone from the cf foundation in case they might have some ideas.... Thanks for reading and in advance of any advice

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.

Are you working in the home or a facility? Did you ask her treating provider?

I've done this by venting the gtube with gentle suction for larger clumps. This is specified by the teen's treatment team at the regional pediatric center in the nursing plan of care.

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Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.

Welcome to allnurses.com

Thread moved to PDN forum.

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Regular venting can be addressed on the 485. Aspiration of mucus should be discussed with the PCP with a resulting order to preclude possible problems.

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Specializes in Cardio-Pulmonary; Med-Surg; Private Duty.
Regular venting can be addressed on the 485. Aspiration of mucus should be discussed with the PCP with a resulting order to preclude possible problems.

^^THIS^^

Get orders for this from the PCP or a specialist, because if anything goes wrong, you're the one that's going to be the responsible party without an order.

You mention that you've "been getting more food into her orally " since doing this.... was she losing weight before you started doing this? Or is she now going to be at risk of gaining weight because she's taking in more food orally plus getting PEG-tube feeds? Her prescribed tube-feeds are based on what she was eating before.....

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I haven't done home health in a while but I always thought if you aspirated contents from peg then you were supposed to put it back to maintain the ph balance? And I could be totally wrong here but I have never aspirated mucous from a peg tube. Could there be an infection?

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Just noticed that the patient has CF okay now I get the mucous part.

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