IV albumin

Specialties Med-Surg

Published

Last night, I had to give IV albumin and threw my hands up in disgust. It was SO hard to get the stupid tubing primed so that I could put the cartriage into the pump and run it. I had the vent open on the tubing (by the spike part). I remember awhile ago seeing another nurse prime her tubing somehow by using a syringe filled with NS. I can't remember how she did it but it was quick and it made it so she could just put it on the pump and go. Does anyone have any hints or advice on how to make this easier.

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The vent is not enough. You need to take a needle, 18 G. stick it in the rubber after it is spiked. It will act as a real vent. I have sometimes used 2 and the albumin will free flow.

Barbara

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Agree with Barb, use 18 g needle and it will flow like water.

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Specializes in Med-Surg, Trauma, Ortho, Neuro, Cardiac.

Thanks guys for the advice. I too have been frustrated with albumin.

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Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

Ive given jugs full of the stuff. I don't recall ever having a problem. I used the tubing that came with the albumin. I'm a little concerned about using an unfiltered needle to vent the bottle though.

Fill the drip chamber if it won't flow fill it all the way and squeeze the chamber to force the fluid down. You can then invert the bottle and squeeze to make an air space to count drops.

http://www.albumintherapy.com/us/en/ask.html#8

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They just have us use the regular IV tubing off the clean cart. I do have a question about using the 18 guage needle, though. What if the tubing is the "needleless" type? Thanks for the helpful suggestions! :kiss

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Big point being missed. The needle allows air to come out to equelize the pressure. It is a sterile Needle. Nothing unfiltered goes into the pateint. It allows the albumin go through the tubing.

I have a feeling a P****** match is goint to start. I want no part of it. I base all my practice on the Standards of Practice of the Infusion Nurses Society, of which I am cetified by. Here is the INS Website.

Knock yourselves out.

http://www.ins1.org/

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Originally posted by BarbPick

I have a feeling a P****** match is goint to start. I want no part of it. I base all my practice on the Standards of Practice of the Infusion Nurses Society, of which I am cetified by. Here is the INS Website.

Knock yourselves out.

http://www.ins1.org/

I do not understand from where this feeling is coming. The question about venting with a needle did not seem like a personal attack nor a doubting of your expertise.

It sounded to me like the persons thinking was a little different and maybe you were not on the same sheet of music.

Try to look at a lack of understanding as that. Not a personal attack which I am quite certain it was not.

It was a fair question from a person who was not the expert you are. I am sure she was erring on the side of caution.

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Specializes in NICU.

I work in NICU so things might be a LITTLE different with us, as we usually just attach the filter and draw it up in syringes and give it on a syringe pump. But we have on occassion had to give lots of it and didn't have much trouble priming our regular IV tubing and filters with 5% albumin (we use Baxter tubing and Horizon infusion pumps) as long as the bottle was hung high enough. Then we just change out the albumin bottle Q4H.

Now, 25% is a different story! What we do is spike the bottle with the short filter tubing, and attach a 3-way stopcock to the end of it. Then we put a syringe on one of the stopcock ports, turn off the empty port (while keeping it capped for cleanliness), and litterally PULL the stuff through the tubing by pulling back on the syringe. Once the syringe gets full of air from the tubing, I shut off the stopcock towards the albumin tubing, uncap the empty port, and shoot the air out. Then I continue until the albumin is all the way through the tubing so I can draw it up into a syringe. I would think this method would work with regular IV tubing as well, just use a 60 cc syringe or something.

As I said, I work in a different area some maybe we do things differently!

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Specializes in CCU/CVU/ICU.

Sometimes, we'll run the albumin as a piggy back, and prime the 2ndary tubing with saline prior to spiking the albumin. Saves us alot of time and hassle.

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Specializes in MS Home Health.

I have always used the tubing that came with the albumin without trouble. Interesting to hear others solutions.

renerian

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where I work the albumin comes with it's own tubing................. never had a problem with it.

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