Securing UVC/UAC?

[preemieRNkate, RN]

What do you guys do to secure your umbilical lines? The NNP/doc sutures the lines in, and then we have these bridge things that adhere to the baby's belly and hold the lines in place. They're made of this foam stuff. We put strips on duoderm on the baby before the bridge. I had to take a bridge off of a baby (26 weeks) the other day, and despite the duoderm, his skin was torn. Does anyone else use the bridges? Do you not use them on the micropreemies? Do you use something else?

[Imafloat, BSN, RN]

They suture the lines in and then make a bridge out of the peach respiratory tape.

[preemieRNkate, RN]

They suture the lines in and then make a bridge out of the peach respiratory tape.

How is that on the skin? We don't use that tape for anything. We use elastoplast to secure ETTs (over duoderm).

[SteveNNP, MSN, NP]

We do not suture in our lines here. We bridge tape them with pink tape. If it's a preemie with fragile skin, we put a cut tegaderm under the pink tape on either side of the umbilicus.

[texas2007, BSN, RN]

Our lines are sutured in...then 99% of the time we make a loop on the skin so we can see the numbers and secure one on each side with tegaderm. I've only seen a bridge once and when I was trying to dc the uac, out came the uvc!! It had been pulled back so the sutures were gone and was at 4 but it was such a pain in the butt to take off all the tape and stuff on the bridge!! I hate those bridges and the tegaderm on each side thing is a lot easier when you just have to take out one! I've never seen any skin breakdown, the only questionable issue is sometimes if the baby isn't peeing or something and gets all puffy the line starts to look a little tight across the abdomen.

[NeoNurseTX, RN]

They are sutured in and we do the bridge/goalpost taping - usually I see it with white tape.

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

Our lines are sutured in, then we secure them with Tegaderm/Opsite.

[EricJRN, MSN, RN]

I so wish we'd try securing to one side with Tegaderm rather than bridging. With the Duoderm I don't think the bridging is too hard on the skin, but it seems like I spend half the shift trying to squish white tape back together, especially on babies where there is high heat output from the warmer.

[Imafloat, BSN, RN]

How is that on the skin? We don't use that tape for anything. We use elastoplast to secure ETTs (over duoderm).

It doesn't cause the skin to tear when you remove it. We use neobars for securing our ETTs. I think that is one of the only things we use that tape for.

[preemieRNkate, RN]

Thanks guys!

[RainDreamer, BSN, RN]

I think I'd have to see this "bridge" thing you guys are talking about ...... I've never seen that. Is that just supposed to be more secure?

Like I said, we just use the opsite to secure it after they're sutured in. We loop the UVC down (like a "V") and we loop the UAC up (like an "A") and secure each one with a piece of opsite. They stay secured that way, I've never had one inadvertently come out.

[elizabells, BSN, RN]

A bridge is like... okay. So you take three pieces of pink tape, about five inches long. Two you pinch in the middle so you have the middle two thirds stuck together with a bit on either side still with the sticky side out. You place these on either side of the stump, so the middle bits stick straight up, perpendicular to the baby. You make a U shape with the line (also sticking up, parallel to and in between the tapes) and use your third piece of tape to go back and forth around the sticky-uppy bits of the other two, securing the line in between.

Did that make any sense at all? I tried to Google Image it and didn't find anything.