Proning

We hardly ever prone. We don't have a special bed for proning, no one wants to go through all the hassel. I've never had a pt. who needed it yet. But, we will use sandbags on the pt's chest instead. Suppose to mimick proning. I don't really know if that does diddly.

We hardly ever prone. We don't have a special bed for proning, no one wants to go through all the hassel. I've never had a pt. who needed it yet. But, we will use sandbags on the pt's chest instead. Suppose to mimick proning. I don't really know if that does diddly.

Uhh, sandbags?? That would only make it more difficult for the patient to breathe . . . increase PIP's, drive the RRT nuts. That does not mimic proning.

That's what I thought but supposedly, now I'm not the expert by any means but it forces the patient to recruit other lung fields. I'll have to ask out intensivist in the morning.

In addition to helping with the pressures, and recruiting different lung feels, proning with a bed works wonders for mobilizing all that crap in the lungs and sinuses. We don't keep them only prone, they get positioned at 45% angles (or other angles) too, with a rotoprone bed of course...

Yes we prone. The big problem is that it usually does not occur early enough.

I agree with you 100% on this. Unless we're immediately putting them on ECMO, we should begin the proning process. It seems that it usually takes a couple of days before the docs consider it! I've seen it work miraculous results in a couple of patients (started early)... and I've also seen a couple of patients who somewhat benefited from it, but it was too late to "save" them.

It is possible to prone someone with all kinds of tubes/lines. My last "prone" patient was on the vent (obviously), had about 8 different drips going into two different lines (LSC and R groin Swan), NG, rectal tube, arterial line, and also had SLED running through a line in his RSC. We were able to prone him without incident... heck the dialysis machine never even alarmed!

Anyone here use KCI beds? I guess they don't make the RotoProne anymore? We have been using the Triadyne with the proning kit. It's not the best thing, but you can make it work. It takes a lot of team work to prone most of our patient population... I recommend at least a couple of nurses, an RT, and a couple of techs to ensure no lines/tubes get dislodged during the turn.

We use KCI here in Pittsburgh and rotoprones are still in use. We switch patients to the Triadyne once they have tolerated being supine for a while and are relatively stable. Then consult for a trach!