Potassium and I.V.s

[delrionurse]

Does anyone know if potassium will be less painful if the I.V. is in the antecubital area rather than the forearm? What gauge I.V. works best? Thanks.

[Been there,done that, ASN, RN]

Back in the old days, I would automatically add 15 cc of a lidocaine vial. That prevented  the pain. Then the pyxis  was developed  and I could no longer get my hands on it. You can always request it from the prescribing physician. Some will , some won't. Large bore will help, AC wil help, as will slowing down the rate and diluting .No more than 10 mEq per hour peripherally. Ice packs occasionally are effective. Depends on how low the potassium level is, as well. Many times I would request the oral route.

Excuse the dissertation.. but I have seen too many patients suffer from the administration.

 

[HiddenAngels]

Uggg agreed! This one  is one of the worst. Large vein for sure but it doesn’t matter, amtecube pantycube, it could be the size of a garden hose and it will still burn some patients.  I run this with a separate bag  of saline in a distal port on a different pump. I usually run with 20-30 ccs of saline and I maaaay be able to complete the infusion before it’s just forget about it let’s try liquid or pill or form

[londonflo]

delrionurse said:

Does anyone know if potassium will be less painful if the I.V. is in the antecubital area rather than the forearm? What gauge I.V. works best? Thanks.

You need to step back and ponder what is the best way to give a potassium IV dose, without causing pain, ruining the IV site and revisit what a 'gauge' is versus the solutions that go through it. 

[mmc51264, BSN, MSN, RN]

If I have a pt that is sensitive to it, I run it slower and sometimes Y-site NS to dilute some.