Old nurse needs info on chest tubes....

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Ok...feel kind of dumb but when our hearts and thoracic pts return from OR they either have pleural or mediastinal CT...we use the atrium 2002 single chamber wet suction device. Water is in and bubbles are going... we use low suction around 20 on the wall unit. I have been charting for years that these cts are to suction...I have recently seen others chart they are to waterseal only or waterseal and suction....can they be to both? If tubing from the wall suction canister is connected to the chamber and it is on and bubbles are going then arent we using suction...I need a little clarification, went to the atrium website but could not get a difinitive answer and the offices are closed for tech support....thanks

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Whether to wall suction or not a water seal is always present. I've noticed this confusing terminology as well, some Nurses will refer to an atrium that is not connected to suction as being "water seal", even though it's still a water seal if connected to suction. Charting "suction (at x pressure)" vs "not to suction" would make more sense.

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Got it...waterseal is the constant and suction is a variable...thanks...:)

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