low diastolic BP after giving PRBC

Specialties Med-Surg

Published

After administering 2 units of PRBC, the Pt's DBP was 40 with a normal SBP. Should I have called the MD? Pt no longer had a temp of 100F like two hr earlier when notified MD.

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Specializes in ICU.

Did you take it manually or was it with a machine? Either way if it was truly 40 that is considered a critical blood pressure...So you could have called the MD or put the dynamap on the patient set it to every 5 minutes and see if the blood pressure was trending up...Could you trend the blood pressure, had the DBP been running low? Which I have been told by MDs before they really don't mind about a low DBP is the SBP they truly care about.

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The DBP had not been running in the 40-50s. They were in the 70-80s. Would giving lasix and morphine (occasionally for a fx) have anything to do with the unusual DBP? The SBP was 120s, I think.

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Specializes in PICU.

I would definitely say the Lasix and Morphine could have something to do w/ the low DBP. I work peds, so I'm not sure how adults react, but kids will often drop their DBP when they're septic, overly sedated (though that will usually make them drop both SBP and DBP) or if they're receiving lots of bronchodilators and/or Mag.

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