arterial & venous sheath

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can anyone help me find ways of differentiating an arterial or femoral sheath following angiogram?:redbeathe thanks...

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Specializes in ER, PCU, ICU.
can anyone help me find ways of differentiating an arterial or femoral sheath following angiogram?:redbeathe thanks...

Our facility always color codes them. Red for arterial, blue for venous. I suppose an incompetent MD could switch them inadvertently, so you could connect pressure lines and transduce them which will give you either an arterial wave form or a central venous waveform ... those are pretty easy to differentiate.

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Specializes in Med/Surg ICU.

This is not a sure fire way but I was taught.. NAVY

Nerve

Artery

Vein

Y of groin

so you should be fairly confident that the medial line would be venous and the lateral line arterial.

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Specializes in CCU/CVU/ICU.
This is not a sure fire way but I was taught.. NAVY

Nerve

Artery

Vein

Y of groin

so you should be fairly confident that the medial line would be venous and the lateral line arterial.

Many times the sheaths are on top of one another...(appearing more proximal and distal rather than medial and lateral). So...i think (like the other poster mentioned) a better way is to transduce them....especially if you're unsure...BUT it would be stupid to drop someone off to ICU/CCU and not label and/or inform the nurse which is which...but stranger things have happened...

Or...a simpler way would be to aspirate some blood. Darker is venous...

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry/PCU, SNF.
This is not a sure fire way but I was taught.. NAVY

Nerve

Artery

Vein

Y of groin

so you should be fairly confident that the medial line would be venous and the lateral line arterial.

That's exactly how I learned it. I guess too you could palpate for pulses, or aspirate blood.

Cheers.

Tom

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I learned "Venous, member"

The venous sheath is closer to the genital area than the arterial one is.

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Specializes in CTICU.

Too funny! I bet you never forgot though!

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Specializes in Cardiac Nursing, ICU.

Hey I learned the same thing!!

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Specializes in CVICU, ICU, RRT, CVPACU.
Our facility always color codes them. Red for arterial, blue for venous. I suppose an incompetent MD could switch them inadvertently, so you could connect pressure lines and transduce them which will give you either an arterial wave form or a central venous waveform ... those are pretty easy to differentiate.

Excellent idea. I have actually had to do this recently. Transducing is a great way when all else fails.

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Specializes in Cardiac, Post Anesthesia, ICU, ER.

Several good suggestions. I always had the NAVY thing as well, but I agree, they can be difficult to determine, especially if the physician sticks them right on top of each other. Most places I've worked, they've kept the arterial line on a transducer though, so it was pretty easy to differentiate.

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we always transduce our sheaths until we pull them.

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Specializes in Telemetry, ICU, Psych.
I learned "Venous, member"

The venous sheath is closer to the genital area than the arterial one is.

I was taught the same thing from a long time CICU and current Cath Lab nurse.

CrazyPremed

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