Blood transfusion time frame

[sweetiepie2]

12:10 am by sweetiepie2 a member since may '12. posts: 0

i have a question related to blood transfusions. i understand that prbc must be infused within a 4hr time frame, but does that include the time it takes to flush the line with saline. i encountered a situation where the saline and tubing were left infusing for an hour outside of the 4hr limit and questioned if this was safe or not because blood is still in the line. i always take vs and record them when the blood comes down which to me means when that bag and tubing is leaving the room with me and is off of the pt. am i wrong or is the transfusion complete when you switch to ns to flush and your vs should be done then. i don't understand running ns with blood in it for an hour outside of the time frame. how would this not increase the risk of bacterial growth in the blood that is left. we run at 50ml for the first 15min then at 110-120ml/hr for the remainder.

[Mphillipsrn]

Typically what I did was backprime the tubing into the blood at the last few minutes to ensure the line cleared completely. I flush everything. I've had bad experiences with a port being left unflushed. Less than 4 hours is standard but target for 3. Start at 100 ml an hour and increase if pt tolerates it.

[silentRN]

I dunno, usually in the ICU we give blood a lot faster than that depending how quickly they need it. Had a patient whose EBL was around 8 litters, so you can imagine that 100 ml an hour wouldn't be sufficient. We never run it in an IV pump either, always by gravity and a pressure bag or rapid transfuser. Our policy is to get VS q15 minutes while blood is transfusing, and then 15 minutes after the transfusion is complete. I say that the transfusion is over when there's no more blood in the line.

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

It includes the line. The longer it hangs the higher the chance of reaction/infection. The recommendation is LESS than 4 hours with 2-21/2 optimal. The transfusion when the tubing has been dc'd.

[chare]

It's important to remember that the four hours start from the time that the blood leaves the refrigerator in the bllod bank, not the time that the infusion is started.

[RNsRWe, ASN, RN]

Four hours from the time it leaves the blood bank until transfusion is complete, NOT the time it takes you to get it hung and run.

This is why you should have everything ready to go before you get that blood---and on my last hospital unit, that meant getting a set of vitals just before dodging down to the lab (or having a pct get them prn to save time, if I thought I needed it).