Flushing lines.

[dawngloves, BSN, RN]

What do you use to flush your lines? NSS or sterile water? Heparinized?

How many mls for a PIV? PICC?

We are debating not using heparin for our flushes, even PICCs.Worried we'll clot off alot of lines.

[fergus51]

We use plain NS for our PICCs (0.4ml before and after the med) and pivs. I've been here over a year and never seen a PICC clotted off.

[Gompers, BSN, RN]

What do you use to flush your lines? NSS or sterile water? Heparinized?

How many mls for a PIV? PICC?

We are debating not using heparin for our flushes, even PICCs.Worried we'll clot off alot of lines.

We just use 0.9 normal saline for all flushes, unless the baby's sodium is sky-high, in which case we'll use 0.45 saline instead. As long as the maintenance fluid that is running through the line has heparin in it there shouldn't be an issue with clotting (we use 0.5 u/cc if it's TPN or D10Lytes, if it's just 0.9 with saline to keep the line open, then we use 2 u/cc).

The only time we use heparin flushes is in the rare case of a baby that has a Broviac and doesn't have fluid running through it at times - like if it's just for meds or if the TPN is cycled over 16 hours a day, etc. Then we will instill 3cc of heparinized saline into each port so it sits in there until the next time it is to be flushed.

[SteveNNP, MSN, NP]

We use NS a/p meds infused into a continuously infusing line [to flush remaining med thru tubing] We use 10u/ml heparinized saline to flush unused PICC lumens and hep locks without continuous fluids attached.

[BittyBabyGrower, MSN, RN]

Same as Steve....I didn't think you were supposed to use sterile water ever to flush a line.

[KK7724]

we use heparinized saline that comes in syringes already drawn up. We put 'em on the med pump after the antibiotic finishes infusing and we factor the distance of the line, etc....(for example, our micobore extension tubing is .25ml)

[sparkyRN]

0.6cc 1/4ns flushes before and after every med.

[dawngloves, BSN, RN]

Same as Steve....I didn't think you were supposed to use sterile water ever to flush a line.

I use it to mix my ampicillin. You know I don't mean the stuff in the volu feeder bottles, right? :chuckle

[Gompers, BSN, RN]

I use it to mix my ampicillin. You know I don't mean the stuff in the volu feeder bottles, right? :chuckle

I think she means using it straight, like how you can run straight saline or dextrose. We use sterile water all the time to reconstitute meds, too.

[dawngloves, BSN, RN]

I had an orientee one day draw up a syringe of water from a Mead Johnson bottle to mix meds with.She showed me how much she drew up and I was like, 'Ummm, did you get it out of this bottle??!!" :uhoh21:

[sparkyRN]

Yikes!