Published Aug 5, 2003
RockieSis
30 Posts
Open inquiry to Open Heart nurses.
How do you position your patients arms for surgery? Our Doc trained at THI where arms are positioned above the head on Wedges and taped to the arm board. This bothers me, as well as some of the other staff members. But he is adament that this is acceptable and standard practice in other areas. Is anyone else out there doing this?
thanks so much R-SIS
zambezi, BSN, RN
935 Posts
I am not an OR nurse, but i have watched a few open heart surgeries. I think that the arms were either out to the sides or down by the body, but definately not over the head in our hospital. Sorry I don't have any solid info.
love4nsg
3 Posts
i'v only seen one OPEN HEART surg. and her arms were placed @ her side and secured so they would not fall off the table
POPRN
37 Posts
we pad and tuck the arms at the sides, we are careful to make sure the arm with A-line is in proper position. I have done open hearts for 9 years. one hospital used towels to pad elbow and the other used foam pads. Hope this helps.
infinity
26 Posts
policy and procedure and of course AORN guidelines should prevail over a physician-I would get your manager, director and patient care committee involved. This could quite possibly account for arm numbness and tingling that many heart patients experience--including my husband. I work in surgery btw.
Circl8r
43 Posts
At St. Elsewhere we pad and tuck the arms for all CV cases. Depending on the doc, we either use foam eggcrate padding or a silicone pad.
huckfinn
108 Posts
Always tucked at side bilat. I never thought there was any other way to do it for 18 yrs. now.