Hematoma Grading

Hi guys.

Was just wondering what scale or methods do you use for meassuring hematomas usually associated with angiography via a femoral approach. Any help would be highly appreciated. Thanks.

I personally am unaware of any 'scales' used to measure hematomas post-procedure. It's either there or it's not...and can be 'small', 'huge', etc....subjective descriptions i suppose, depending on the nurse. Sometimes i've seen them demarkated with pen/marker to monitor for progression...but the thing is, if it's there we generally disperse it (by holding additional pressure), or express it...in the hope of making it diaspear all together...

If it returns there may be a bigger issue...

on our post procedure flow sheet we had a series of circular lines with cm marked 1,2,3... so if the patient had a hematoma the nurse would circle it with a surgical marker & document the cm. This helped with continuity of care. I don't like the use of "small, medium, large". Either use cm x cm which is most accurate or compare to something common, walnut sized, lemon sized. Best to keep a measuring tape in a pocket or nurses station. Tape also good for DVT (calf measuring). If you don't have one, get a piece of twill tape & mark the size of the hematoma & then take it to your trust level to measure. Done this lots of times in a pinch.