Hemostats

What do you use hemostats for? I always have them in my pocket and have yet to use them except for holding tape on the bottom of my scrub shirt.

I know it's a silly question, but I've never seen anyone actually use them.

We use them to clamp lines during setup of a plasmapheresis machine until the connections are made. It supposedly keeps sterile air inside the tubing, and in any case, makes it easier to juggle them with other stuff. It is important to clamp the saline line and test to make sure the saline line is seated correctly in the valve - getting the saline mixed with the plasma is a no-no and will get the plasma unit destroyed.

Useful, I've found, for poking the parking ticket machine at the parking garage... I'm too short to get at it otherwise, without opening my door.

I use them to unscrew IV tubing that is too tight.

I think that I may actually have a winner for use -

Yeah, we all carry them and I often wonder why?

I know that it is generally not acceptable as a use, but I had a guy have his leg amputated in an accident and I was having trouble getting the artery to stop squirting - I had tried everything. I finally settled on clamping the (I know less than sterile) hemostat on the artery to stop the profuse squirting. I was a field medic many miles from an ER/OR.

Not well supported as a treatment - but the alternative did not seem like a good option either.

I (pray) doubt that I will ever be in that position again. But, at the time it mattered.

Now, I just use 'em to clamp of IV bags that have fluid in 'em when we remove them from the line.

Practice SAFE!

I use them to unscrew tight IV connections and I've found them useful in emergencies such as when my confused pt reached up and tore his new hickman in half above the clamp. (We weren't allowed to restrain him until after this). They weren't sterile but clamping the line seemed like the sensible thing to do to prevent either hemorrhage or air embolism.

They came in handy.

I still carry hemostats in my pockets. As already stated for removing tight iv caps. for clamping a foley if I need a urine sample ( our hospital no longer carries those little plastic clamps for the purpose) I have also used them in a pinch as part of my make shift iv hanger ( touniquet, around over the bed setup through the hanger part of the iv bag hemostat to hold it secure ) until I could locate a pole ( we do not have poles under our beds )

I do use hemostats to unscrew tight IV tubing too.

Since they come in suture removal kits and are disposable, and I don't use them to remove sutures anyway(forceps grip better), I take them home. They would only get thrown away anyway.

Hemostats function very much like needle-nose pliers.

also clamping chest tube tubing when looking for a leak....

I also use them for IV lines that are too tight.

I also use them to metal part off of NS bottles for patients that forgot their contact cases before surgery...

When I worked cardiac surgical we used them to clamp chest tubes (when ordered, of course!), I had to use them once when a patient ripped his chest tube apart at the joint....I clamped until we got another clean chest tube set up. I've also used them for unscrewing tight IV connections, I know I've used them at home for stuff, like picking up stuff from small areas that I couldn't reach with my fingers, I got my husband some big ones for fishing (I guess of them fishies have sharp teeth! Need the clamps to take out the hook), etc. There's always something! I'm a VNA nurse now, I've still used them to disconnect some caps off of picc lines. :)