Anyone ever have a pt allergic to alcohol wipes?

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Specializes in Med-Surg Nursing.

Seriously......a pt I took care of last night informed me that she is highly allergic to the smell of them? OK, sure. She tells me this the SECOND time I come near her with one to wipe the port off of the IV tubing to give her pain med. Earlier, like 3 hrs earlier, I gave her sliding scale coverage and swiped the injection site with an alcohol pad and it didn't phase her one bit.

Pt explains that she has seizures and stops breathing if exposed to one. Ok hun. I ask the nurse who took care of her on day shift about this during report and she told me that she too swiped her skin with an alcohol pad and the pt didn't say a thing.

Now, I've been an RN for 11 yrs, at four different hospitals in two different states and this is the FIRST time I've come across a pt with an allergy to alcohol pads. Anyone else?

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Specializes in M/S, dialysis, home health, SNF.

Yeah, I had a pt in home health who was allergic, but she actually got welts when I wiped her arm with alcohol.

Weird. I've had someone tell me they were allergic to saline, too. Now, THAT one I REALLY don't believe!

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Specializes in Nurse Anesthesia, ICU, ED.

Yes when I was in my senior final clincal rotation I had a pt allergic to the alcohol wipes. Elderly woman whose skin immediately turned bright red once exposed. Worse part was the other woman with her was a retired OR nurse and I felt her boreing holes into me as I got a washcloth to wipe it off. Still started the IV though.

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well yes 2 pt's.one was had a local allergic reaction (redness and burning sensation) and the other one idk but she started sneezing (like allergic rhinitis) when she smelled the alcohol...i was a student then, i used betadine and distilled water to cleanse the skin for iv..

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i have had several, not many but at least 4-5 that required the use of betadine wipes

it is not much trouble to substitute one for the other...never hurts to listen to your patient

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Specializes in EMS, ER, GI, PCU/Telemetry.

i had a pt recently who was allergic to alcohol wipes, it caused a bright red welt that was rapidly moving up her arm when i went to prep her hand for an IV start.

the MD said he had seen it before, he said to use betadine and then wipe with the towelettes for a urine culture (i forget what those are called) before starting the IV...

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Specializes in Med-Surg Nursing.

i have had several, not many but at least 4-5 that required the use of betadine wipes

it is not much trouble to substitute one for the other...never hurts to listen to your patient

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Problem with using betadine wipes is that where I work, it's a cheap facility and we don't HAVE betadine wipes!!!! Only bottles of the stuff. So, yes, where I work it IS a problem if you don't have any alternative. We don't even use cholrhexidine gluconate either....its too expensive so they won't buy it....best practices be darned!! Yet another reason that I LOATHE where I work.

Pt didn't have any LOCAL reaction, ie, no redness, swelling, or anything like that. And it just seemed to me that she was a bit overly sensitive to the smell of the alcohol wipe. As I stated in my first post, the patient NEVER said a word to me the FIRST time I used an alcohol wipe on her skin. Her chart listed an allergy to alcohol, which I took to mean that she was allergic to alcohol that's found in booze, NOT rubbing alcohol.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

Problem with using betadine wipes is that where I work, it's a cheap facility and we don't HAVE betadine wipes!!!! Only bottles of the stuff. So, yes, where I work it IS a problem if you don't have any alternative.

Do you have sterile gauze?

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Specializes in NICU.

the MD said he had seen it before, he said to use betadine and then wipe with the towelettes for a urine culture (i forget what those are called) before starting the IV...

Castile soap?

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Specializes in Med-Surg Nursing.
Do you have sterile gauze?

Yeah, I see where you are going......like I said, I dont believe she was truly allergic cause if she was she'd have had a respiratory reaction from having alcohol wipes used on her earlier in the day.....and also I don't think she is truly allergic because she never mentioned the allergy until the SECOND time I opened the wipe in her room. Not the first.

The pt's been transferred out of my ICU...so I will have to ask the med surg unit what they are using for her in place of alcohol wipes.

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In my experience, when a pt. says they're "allergic to alcohol" it means that they are a recovering alcoholic and can never go near the stuff anymore. Maybe that's what was meant when alcohol was listed as an allergy on your patient's chart, and maybe that's related to why she doesn't even want to smell the alcohol wipes. I imagine there's a history there...

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Specializes in Community Health, Med-Surg, Home Health.

This is so interesting...first time I am hearing of any of this! We have no betadine that is readily available, so, I would be desperate to find an alternative. Opening up the Castile soap would deplete our urine culture kits, so, reading this is so informative!

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