IV Medicine Question

[saddor223]

I work in Home Health. The IV tubing comes with a filter. When administering a medication by gravity I notice when the bag is empty the medicine does not go all the way through the filter. I have tried raising the IV bag higher and nothing. I have tried googling everything and have found nothing. Am I doing something wrong or is that just a safety feature? Thank you!

[MunoRN, RN]

It partly depends on what you mean by "filter" since that is often used to describe particulate filters, one way valves, and air removal devices. Are you trying to run the tubing completely dry?

[saddor223]

I never run tubes dry. I keep very close tabs it. I have watched it when the bag gets empty and when it runs through the filter it stops about 3/4 of the way down the filter. I believe it is just a particulate filter. This is what stumps me.

[MunoRN, RN]

If your intention is to infuse all of the medication including what's in the tubing then I would suggest running it as a primary/secondary infusion, or hang a separate bag of flush after the medication has finished.

The built-in filters for IV tubing is usually just a disk-like device, and you can't see fluid that is in the filter, however you can see the fluid in a particulate/air filter, and once only air is running into the filter the medication will no longer continue forward, which sounds more like what you're describing.

[saddor223]

Thank you MunoRN!!!