Catheter exchange

iluvivt, BSN, RN · Jul 31, 2009

We allow PICC exchange.as long as it makes sense clinically....for example...if we are taking a PICC out due to a suspected catheter related infection......I would start from scratch...We rarely use it anymore now that we have an a bedside Ultrasound....once in a while if the PICC is new and something happened to it overnight..such as a hole....I will exchange it......we used to do it a lot more..especially when we knew it had been a difficult stick...You do have to be very careful that you do not contaminate the field with the old PICC though...and remember that the CDC DOES NOT recommend routine catheter exchange as a preventative measure against infection. Can I ask under what kind of circumstances you are wanting to perform this??

tx2007, RN · Jul 31, 2009

We just started using the power PICC's and we would be doing over the wire exchanges in the event that we didnt trim the catheter long enough or short enough. Also we had an incident the other day of a nurse pulling the PICC out about 6CM while doing a dressing change, this PICC was 48 hours old, and since it was pulled out of the SVC we had to go do a whole new PICC. Of course we would NOT do a cath exchange for suspected infection, occlussion, ect. Just wanted to know about these instances that I stated above.