Switching back to primary IV

[Jenny9292]

Hello, this might be a stupid question but after your piggyback infusion is done infusing and it switches back to the primary infusion via gravity say you want to get rid of the piggyback bag and tubing and hang the primary tubing bag back up and only have that one hanging. Do you need to reset the IV pump?

[Okami_CCRN, BSN, RN]

I'm a little confused, why would you want to get rid of the IV tubing and bag if it isn't due to be changed. Research shows that IV tubing should be changed every 96 hours (4 days) and you should minimize accessing/disconnecting the tubing from the patient.

But to answer your question, if you hang a new bag you have to update your VTBI; example, let's say you are running NS at 125ml/hr and you need to hang a new bag, you would need to enter a new VTBI as 950ml. Hope that helps.

[SilleLu]

On our pumps you could just disconnect the piggyback bag and tubing from the primary, no need to change anything, other than new VTBI as PP stated. The primary solution is programmed separately from the secondary, so once the secondary is complete, the primary programmed takes over. On our old pumps, they had a cartridge where the piggyback tubing connected, so if you disconnected, you would need a sterile cap on the cartridge, and those were impossible to find for some reason. So your question may depend on the type of pump you have.

[loriangel14, RN]

You can take down the piggyback bag and tubing without touching the main bag and tubing.