magic markers on IV bags

[ginger58, ASN, RN]

Does the ink really leach through the thick IV bag?:monkeydance:

[ginger58, ASN, RN]

Does the ink really leach through the thick IV bag?:monkeydance:

Just found my own answer online. Ballpoint/magic markers really can leach through the bag.

[Mandolyn]

I do not know with certainty. I would be interested in seeing it written down somewhere in text that it does or doesn't but I have always been told that it does, so we are not to mark the bag with a Marker. We mark a label and apply the label to the bag.

[redraccoon, BSN, RN]

We use a lable also - or at the very least a strip of silk tape.

do you have a link to the info you found?

[txspadequeenRN, BSN, RN]

I have been told time and time again do not mark on the bag because the ink will leak through. So I always use tape or something else to label the bag.

[cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN]

That's what I was taught as well-use a label.

[Little Panda RN, ASN, RN]

It says in my IV book, "Never write directly on a flexible plastic bag with a ballpoint pen or any type of indelible marker. The pen may puncture the bag and the indelible marker ink may absorb into the plastic and contaminate the infusate" ( Intravenous Infusion Therapy for Nurses, Principles and Practice, Second Edition, Dianne L. Josepson).

This is all it states, but we were also taught during class this same principle.

[slinkeecat]

yes it does and that is why we use labels....

[Marie_LPN, RN, LPN, RN]

Found out my answer by testing it on an expired bag day before yesterday. Yes it does come through.

[Mr.Sandman]

Do any of the forum members have knowledge of any scientific study that has been done to prove or disprove this phenomenon. I am really interested in the documented evidence of leaching of ink into a bag of intravenous fluids after writing on the bag with a sharpie or whatever permanent marker is used.