Returning blood

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What are your thoughts on squeezing bag of saline versus allowing saline to return blood via regular IV infusion. Have read that the squeezing is just for staff to save time. What is done in different units?

I think where it matters most is with aN IJ catheter or new access - fistual or graft. The danger is the risk of damaging the blood vessel. Do you aspirate blood into the final flush for a Tessio catheter?
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Unless you are hercules that's not gonna happen.

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Fresenius does recert studies and reverses lines to do them with their Twister Lines @. They run the blood pump at 300 for 10 minutes during the study VIA the ARTERIAL line on a graft and a fistula. I doubt many nurses have that type of strength to squeeze the bag post treatement.

If anything it might help with development of the fistula.

Exercising and squeezing the ball have become controversial and studied. "Proven" not to make a difference in maturing a fistula.

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I personally do not like squeezing. I feel that on some pts, it causes artificially high post bps.

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I personally do not like squeezing. I feel that on some pts, it causes artificially high post bps.

So what do you do to stop the blood from flowing up into the NS. Do you just leave it and add to the already anemic state most HD patients live with?

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I agree with Kathy. Squeezing is poor practice. Fresenius has adopted the squeezing method as policy. I am sure that it is to save them the time and money of using a syringe with saline to rinse back the arterial fistula needle line. I too, prefer to use the "y" method, after I disconnect I aseptically flush the arterial access line with a 10cc NSS syringe.

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When discontinuing a hemodialysis treatment on a patinet with any type of Central Venous Catheter (IJ, or subclavian), a syringe with normal saline solution is connected to each port of the catheter and the catheter is flushed with the normal saline(NSS). I have no idea why they would be aspirating your catheter at the end of the dialysis treatment. After the catheter is flushed with NSS, a syringe is used to instill heparin into each lumen of the catheter.

Aspiration is done to each lumen to the catheter pre-dialysis in order to remove the heparin and to be certain that the catheter is functioning. There would be no reason that I can think of to spirate a catheter post dialysis treatment.

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