PCA and PTT

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Hello!

Could someone tell me the significance of monitoring a patient's PTT while on a PCA?

pasha :-)

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There must be something else going on with this pt. I've never heard of any connection between a PCA and need to monitor PTT.

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Opps...sorry it was the INR

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PT and INR have no connection to a PCA. This pt has other things going on, either clotting issues (too much or not enough) or is on anticoags and the doc is trying to get an INR into a therapeutic range.

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Agree with above poster. Is patient on IV Heparin?

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First of all thank you for your reply!

This pt had a AAA repair and they wanted to pull the PCA when the INR was at a therapeutic level...

It wan't until after I posted that I finally made the connection...thank you for all of your help!

pasha :-)

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Specializes in Cardiac.

Was it an epidural?

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A PCA would have nothing to do with waiting for an INR level before "pulling" it unless it was a PCEA (pt controlled EPIDURAL analgesia) which was not specified in your post.

A PCA and a PCEA are very different in their care and protocols. Your latest post leads me to believe that it was a PCEA as you would not want to pull an epidural line out of someone and risk an epidural space bleed if they had pulled the line out with a high bleeding time.

I hope you have researched this and have learned the differences, indications, contraindications etc. as it sounds like you do not have much much experience with this.

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Thank you!

pasha :-)

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