18 fr salem sump up the nose?!

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I was recently in the back of an ambulance and the medic asked me to prepare a tube so that we could remove the gastric contents of a man who had already been vomiting. He was found unresponsive, with a camelbak full of liquor and a pocket full of soma. I measured the tube marked it and lubed it, then he tried to put it in the guys nose! Am i mistaken in thinking that a salem sump tube is an orogastric tube, not nasogastric?

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Specializes in M/S, MICU, CVICU, SICU, ER, Trauma, NICU.

It can be both, but an 18 Fr can be painful--however, sounds like your patient needed it.

Desperately.

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that's what i was thinking! it was HUGE compared to his nare... which is what prompted me to question the intervention.

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Specializes in Psych, M/S, Ortho, Float..

All I can say is "yuck".

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i think salems are naso, but that is definitely a large diameter.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

I've seen them in use for NG tubes sometimes for lavages, or emptying of thick chucky contents it's best to have a larger one.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

What Tweety said. You would want a larger size in order to be able to empty out "chunky" stuff.

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Specializes in CTICU.

Used them nasogastric all the time, although not usually an 18.

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Specializes in Psych, M/S, Ortho, Float..

Can I say "yuck" again? I used to work neuro and we had these big tubes as NG's. They were actually as big as chest tubes. And then they try to throw up and it comes out of the other nostril. Add charcoal to the mix to make sure that it stains whatever it hits.

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Specializes in ER, ICU.

18Fr NGT is the standard size gastric tube. Every ED I know stocks them along with 16Fr Foley caths. Yes, they both appear large relative to the orifice that they go through, but they go, don't they? As for the task at hand, it's gonna take a 30-36Fr orogastric tube to get those somas out.

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Specializes in ER/Trauma.

16fr/18fr is standard size used in the ED.

cheers,

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Specializes in ED.

I've used them naso several times for GI bleeders that I thought would have clotted off an anderson. If its just a plain 'ol bowel obstruction then I'll be happy to use an anderson.

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