Published
After many years of giving IM/SQ injections I've always checked for blood return (except heparin-type meds). Imagine my shock one night when my syringe filled with blood!!! I was giving phenergan 50mg, which probably would have hurt like a &%$# if it had gone undiluted like that in a vein (besides the fact it wasn't ordered IVP). Anyway, that sold me for life.
Imagine my shock one night when my syringe filled with blood!!! I was giving phenergan 50mg, which probably would have hurt like a &%$# if it had gone undiluted like that in a vein (besides the fact it wasn't ordered IVP). Anyway, that sold me for life.
ITA. That happened to me with an IM injection of Toradol. It drew back very easy.
bob
In over 10 years of giving injections, I've never once aspirated blood, but I still map out my landmarks on each and every patient AND I pull back every single time (except, of course, for heparin-type meds and insulin). I've never seen anything in the literature that indicates otherwise, and even if I were to, I'd still aspirate, because the alternative is possibly injecting directly into a blood vessel, and most of the drugs we give IM are ones that you definitely don't want going directly into the circulation! Can you imagine a drug like IM Rocephin being accidentally injected into a small vessel, and the damage it could do? No way........I'll just keeping mapping out my injection sites and pulling back, thank you very much. :)
Like Tiffy, the one time I pulled back and got a blood return sold me for life. I was giving Demerol and Phenergan. It's the one and only time it happed, but now that I'm not doing charge and carrying a full patient loads the odds are going back up it will happen again. It's automatic for me now anyway, whether it's necessary or not.
Last week my son had his quarterly Botox injections done and for the first time ever I found a humungous hematoma on his leg the next day. There had been no flashback in the syringe but there was a small amount of bleeding after the needle was removed. I'm a little upset that it happened, since Botox given systemically can be fatal. Thankfully I'm not seeing any indication that he is heading for resp failure...
angelbyte
7 Posts
In a staff meeting a few weeks ago, one of the nurses said that pulling back to check for blood is no longer necessary. I cannot find any documentation to that effect. Does anyone know?