Priming potassium lines

[Melanin]

Is there a better way to prime a primary line when you're running potassium? As of now, I prime the line with the potassium (since, as far as I know, you can't back prime the primary line) - but I find that part of the first run gets wasted because I have to let the fluid run a little to get rid of the bubbles that inevitably appear in the line, even if I prime slowly. Because of this wasting, most often my first run of potassium goes dry before 100 mls have infused. Thanks!

[BSN16]

It is OK to waste a little bit of medication to prime the line. If you are concerned about your line running dry, you could set the pump to a lower amount rather than the full 100.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Moved to the Nursing / Patient Medications forum.

[Guest219794]

While you may lose a little bit by priming the line, it is probably only a few CCs.

The reason your pump stops before you infuse 100 ML is that a bunch is still in the line. If you read your tubing packaging, you will learn how much total volume is as well as how much volume there is between the cartridge and the PT.

It always surprises me to see primary lines used, especially for 50 ml bags- It is very difficult to infuse the last 50 ML, and often I see about 2/3 of a dose being given with 1/3 e=wasted in the line.

The reason to run it as a secondary is that it is easy to give the whole dose- you can run a secondary line completely dry. And, with the right pump, you can dilute it by running primary and secondary concurrently.

[Melanin]

Thanks! So yeah, we don't have the kinds of pumps that will infuse a primary and secondary simultaneously, so we run two primaries (one with K & one with fluids) through 2 primaries, connected to each other below 2 separate pumps so as not to infuse straight K. And yeah, our pumps are super sensitive & will scream at us & stop automatically if there are air bubbles. I'm glad to hear of these new kinds of pumps, and I hope to someday have them at my workplace!

[GM2RN]

oy, sounds like a bad idea.

so does 4 runs of k = 4,400mL? (1L + 100mL of k X4?)

Also, how fast do you run the liter bag with k? 1 hour? #bolus #diluting the k anyway

haha.

I work in the ER and typically wouldn't need to hang more than 2 bags of potassium. So 2 hours minimum for 1 liter. Really 4 bags of potassium could go in a liter bag over 4 hours. Would be no different than running a 250 bag of NS with each. One or 2 bags of potassium could go in a 500 or smaller bag of NS if you didn't want to give that much fluid.