Manifolds: Question On Connecting Multiple Drips

[Kate96]

hey everyone! I just had a question about manifolds. I was told by a senior RN that it doesn't matter the order you connect drips to manifolds. For example, the rates of the separate drips don't matter as far as connecting the drip going at the fastest rate closest to the patient. I think this is because the carrier fluid I had going was going at 200cc/hr anyway so it probably did not matter the rates of the drips connecting into the manifold. However, from my experience and from all the research I have seen normally the added flow of rates do affect one another even with manifolds. However, manifolds are beneficial because they provide essentially for your drips to reach the patient faster instead of y-siting a bunch of drips together. 

[offlabel]

The total rate of the IVF entering the catheter hub is the cumulative rate of all the drips entering the manifold, ie, five pumps each going at 100 ml/hr means that the rate at the hub is 500 cc/hr. Doubt it matters very much at all, but if you want to split hairs, you'd just arrange the drips slower to faster proximal to distal to the patient on the manifold.