Hypodermaclysis HDC

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Hi, I work in LTC and we have at least 8 people on Clysis every night. I was wondering if anyone has any tips for clysis. As the best placement, especially on someone extremly emancipated and there are like no good sites left. Also is there a trick to it.. sometimes i'll get ones that'll flow nicely.. other ones if it's supposed to be 70cc/hr it's going at like 40-50cc/hr. Am I doing something wrong???? Thanks

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I work in a hospital and my pts are not adults, so I'm really not familiar with this technique, but your post made me read up on it. I saw this link to the Alberta Cancer Board site. On page 48, it says that proctoclysis (rectal fluids) could be an alternative to pts who are not candidates for HDC.

http://www.cancerboard.ab.ca/maco/pdf/hpcn_apcr_2001_05-08-03.pdf

I know you can't institute this treatment on your own, but if your facility is having some problems with clysis, it might be worth looking into as a backup option.

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Specializes in med/surg, telemetry, IV therapy, mgmt.

wow! the last time i saw this used was in a nursing home back in the 1970's. this is an old solution to the problem of not being able to find any veins. what i saw was that the needles (yes, they used 20g 1 and 1/2 inch steel needles were placed subcutaneously into the front of the thighs. the fluids cannot be running too fast because basically what is being done is that the fluid is infiltrating into the subcutaneous tissue. it seems to me that 70cc an hour would still be a high rate of flow, but in researching this i see that 80cc an hour is considered ok. the body is then left to absorb the fluids from the area of infiltration. i saw the nurses putting warm packs over the sites of injection to increase the circulation to the area. i think you will find a lot of good information from the links i've listed, particularly with regard to potential sites for the needles to be placed. good luck.

http://www.fpnotebook.com/er90.htm - has information on sites, infusates and rates of infusion

http://www.aafp.org/afp/20011101/1575.html - "hypodermoclysis: an alternative infusion technique" from american family physician. vol. 64/no. 9 (november 1, 2001)

[color=#004a8a]http://www.aafp.org/afp/20011101/hypoph.html - a patient teaching handout on hypodermocylsis from the above article

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Hey thanks for all the great info so far!!!

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