Checking A Patient's Blood Glucose In His Earlobe?

[Dazglue]

The other night we had a patient whose blood sugar was low after supper and it was checked in his fingers. After about an hour with critical low values, he was given a dose of D50 and it started to go up but it was still low. Another nurse decided to check the patient's glucose in his earlobe and it was almost doubled but was finally in the normal range. I've never seen this before and could not find this in our policy and procedures. Is this a common practice? Just wondering because I have never heard of or seen this before. I will ask my educator tomorrow but would like to know how common this practice is...Thanks.

[LightMyFire]

Had a pt once with severe edema in upper extremities. That's when I learned the earlobe trick!

[Havin' A Party!, ASN, RN]

Actually, the ear stick wasn't painful at all...

But just imagining it, M, makes me flinch.

Sensitive ears???

[Dazglue, ADN, BSN, MSN, RN]

UPDATE: Sorry it took me so long to reply back. However, since my DON, PCC, & safety manager did not know the answer I got in contact with an educator from another unit. (They refuse to hire an educator for us and as usual, my management was not pleased about me asking someone else for assistance. However, if they are over me and aren't able to answer a question about patient care, I would assume they wouldn't mind me asking someone who knows.) Anyways, the educator stated not to used an earlobe unless it's used consistently due to the results may be slightly off. I kind of figured this because even though the blood glucose was in a normal range when tested in the earlobe, it was significantly lower when checked in the finger again a few minutes later. I believe the reason why they didn't do a serum level at first was because the patient stated he did not want to be stuck. Eventually he agreed to it and his glucose matched the glucose of the finger stick.

[ThePrincessBride, MSN, RN, NP]

I've had to do an earlobe prick once when an MRDD patient became combative and wouldn't let me stick his finger. I've also had a patient who would tell me to stick in his arms.