How fast do you run blood?

[Rexie]

A family member has cancer and needed a unit of blood. The nurse in the infusion center intended to run it over an hour, though she had to slow the rate a bit due to a rise in blood pressure. It probably took 2 hours. On the floors I work, we typically infuse blood over 3-4 hours. It never occurred to me to run it faster but now I can't help but think, if the patient could tolerate it, it would be so much easier to run it faster. Which leads me to ask: how fast do you normally infuse a unit of blood and how well do your patients tolerate it?

[HalfBoiled, BSN, RN]

50ml/hr on the first 30 mins.

If my pt has multiple transfusions before, I would jump straight to 125ml/hr. Finish less than 3 hours.

[matrixinian]

Usually start at 100-125 ml/hr, then bump up to 150 ml/hr after the first 30 min, depending on if the pt is at risk for overload (CHF, elderly, etc.).

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

125-150 mL/hr avg3 hours

[MurseRunner]

I think it depends on unit/hospital culture and your patient. When I worked in a CCU, I would always run it on the pump at least over 2 hours with the first hour relatively slow. We typically had lots of CHF and they don't need too much fluid too fast. I currently work CVSICU and we routinely run blood off pump in volume tubing usually over an hour or hour and a half; quicker if the patient is tanking.

[snowflower2016]

We typically do pRBCs at 150 ml/hr on our floor...which takes around 2 hours for 1 unit.

[RainMom]

On the floor with a pump, usually about 90 minutes to 2 hrs. In surgery on gravity tubing, it's running wide open, so goes in as fast as the IV allows, usually 15-30 minutes unless emergent & a pressure bag is used.

[Agatha12]

In stable patients normally 3-4h, in emergency as fast as possible.