Central lines and air embolism ?

[Cook23]

Hi ! Today I was sent to draw blood from a patient who had a central venous line. The line was double lumen and both of the lumens had nothing connected to them. One of them had a stopcock and the other was just capped. I tried to draw blood from the one without a stopcock but I wasn't successful. So I went for the lumen which had the stopcock on. I drew the blood and then I flushed the saline but I just can't remember if I clamped the lumens afterwards. I definitely capped the first lumen and I remember turning the stopcock of the other one in a way that the capped site was blocked.

I heard that if you don't clamp the lumens there is a chance of air embolism even if the caps are on. Is this possible and how ? How long would it take for the air embolism to happen ? About 4 hours after the blood draw I passed again from the patient's room and she looked ok. I hadn't realized that I wasn't sure about the clamps so I didn't check them then. Would it take longer than that for the air embolism to happen ? How often do the floor nurses check the patients and do they check the lines too ? I'm sorry if I'm asking too many questions but I'm freaking out a bit since this happened.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

Also, was this your first time drawing blood from a central line? If so, why wasn't someone with you?

[IVRUS, BSN, RN]

"The patient is not going to get an air embolism through the positive pressure caps on the end of each lumen. Kids [COLOR=#1c7dff]play with the [COLOR=#1c7dff]clamps on the end of their lines all the time with no air embolisms developing. The line MUST be clamped when you are changing caps and it's open to air but, otherwise, it's not going to hurt your patient if it isn't."

But... Please note that there are not positive pressure caps on the end of the IV catheter. There may be positive displacement caps, negative or neutral too, but not positive pressure.

Just making sure that we are all on the same page.