IV iron infiltrated

[darren_callcareer18]

Hello! I am so frustrated and stressed out because I administered an Iron IV but it got infiltrated. I checked everything and even checked the patient once in a while but it still infiltrated. I dont know what to do. Any suggestion?

[brownbook]

I know iron can be very irritating and cause staining..how serious a subcutaneous, instead of intravenous, iron infusion is I don't know. Was the infiltrated area a few millimeters, or several centimeters?

I've given iron IV and my huge concern was anaphylaxis...I never even studied up on or thought about what I'd do if it infiltrated.

I hope, assume, you told your charge nurse and MD. What interventions did they advise?

You'd have to tell us what do you think caused the error....simply too busy, too large a patient load? Did the patient have saggy baggy skin making an infiltration hard to notice? Were they sleeping curled up on their side making it hard to thoroughly assess the IV site? Then we could make suggestions.

Of course you know any IV can infiltrate anytime and usually is no big deal.

[darren_callcareer18]

yes I informed the MD and his main concern was the iron not being completed. So, I started a new line to the patient and finished the transfusion. And as to my supervisors, they advised the usual thing to elevate and apply warm compress (but I alternate it with cold compress basing on the web). My sup also advised me to create a sort of incident report.

I just feel so bad because the iron stains to the patient body.

[brownbook]

If you or the patient's biggest problem in life is an iron stain on their arm....you both need to get a grip....this is health care we're talking about. No one died, no one was even injured.

I appreciate your concern but put it in perspective.....it is not really that big a deal!

Was, is, the patient upset about it?

[Jory, MSN, APRN, CNM]

2 hours ago, darren_callcareer18 said:

yes I informed the MD and his main concern was the iron not being completed. So, I started a new line to the patient and finished the transfusion. And as to my supervisors, they advised the usual thing to elevate and apply warm compress (but I alternate it with cold compress basing on the web). My sup also advised me to create a sort of incident report.

I just feel so bad because the iron stains to the patient body.

I get it..but is an incident report completed every time an IV infiltrates? I honestly think this is overkill. Veins blow, it happens.

[IVRUS, BSN, RN]

If you are speaking to IV Venofer, it has a high pH and can be very irritating to the tissues. Ideally, this is not a medication I would want to infuse into a short term, less than 3 inch IV catheter. But in a world where ideals aren't always seen in practice, MONITOR, MONITOR... and have a policy in place before you infusion it, so you know how to handle it if it goes into the tissue.