Crrt

[nurseasia94]

We started CRRT recently and one of the nurses thought that reusing effluent bags opens up the system to bacterial contamination. She suggested using new bags whenever the effluent bags are full. Any thoughts?

[koyeh]

NX stage: Anybody using it? Are you getting the same clearance as with CVVHDF??

[6eyes]

Hai, 6eyes here,

Yes we also use everytime a fresh bag. After a while the bag breaks off. Then you have a real problem. Besides, do you know what is in the effluent? Virusses, medications (like cytostatica)? The pakkage shows the icon: "use once". So in case of a sew, you did wrong!

Kind regards, êyes, The Netherlands

[sicushells, RN]

We reuse our bags. The effluent shouldn't reflux (like someone else already said), so there shouldn't be any contamination between the "old" effluent and the "new" effluent. Also, the effluent itself isn't sterile.

[yeSICU]

NX stage: Anybody using it? Are you getting the same clearance as with CVVHDF??

We use nxstage. No effluent bags to speak of. We have dialysis drains that the effluent line drains into (love that feature! we used to use prisma). Can be hairy to set up, but once it is up and running there are usually few problems other than routine bag changes.