Just wondering what different units lock their catheters with. We use 1000unit/ml Heparin, does anyone use saline or stronger heparin? Thanks for your info.
wordsmith 35 Posts Specializes in Med-surg, acute rehab, cardiac, oncology, dialysis. Has 25 years experience. Jun 7, 2008 We use 5000 unit heparin and use 0.1-0.2 mL over the limb length size stamped on the catheter ends.If the patient's using an access, though, and still has the catheter in while they're transitioning to the access, we lock it with 1000 unit heparin and do it at the beginning of their run, last run of the week, so they'll still have time to clot when they finish their treatment.
zimm4er 13 Posts Jun 7, 2008 we lock all our dialysis lines with 5000units/ml heparin--whatever the loading volume is
happybunny1970 154 Posts Specializes in Acute Hemodialysis, Cardiac, ICU, OR. Has 6 years experience. Jun 8, 2008 We used to use 5,000 units/cc but something happened with our supply right about the time of that 'tainted heparin' fiasco (all of our supply comes through the Pyxis from the hospital pharmacy). Now we use 1,000 units/cc and load 0.2 cc more than the cath volume -- this is what our outpatient clinics in the area use as well. I think the reason we were originally using the 5,000 is that, as an Acute unit, we have many patient come in with temporary IJ catheters, and the higher dose of heparin was thought to give less chance of it clotting.
sunfirebsn 24 Posts Specializes in Dialysis. Has 6 years experience. Jun 17, 2008 We currently use 1:5000 unit strength Heparin for the catheters, used to use 1:10,000 unit strength until a few months ago after the Dennis Quaid baby heparin issue and then I guess some of the 1:10,000 vials were recalled so our clinics switched to the 1:5000 to prevent any problems.
