HEALTH FORUM

>Does anyone have experience in taking blood samples from hickman lines?
>would be interested in your views about what to use. Do any of you use
>vacuette or vacutainer systems? Are there issues about the vacuum in the
>bottles?
>

>On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 19:40:41 GMT, Rosie Morrison
> wrote:
>
>>Does anyone have experience in taking blood samples from hickman lines?
>>would be interested in your views about what to use. Do any of you use
>>vacuette or vacutainer systems? Are there issues about the vacuum in the
>>bottles?
>>
>
>
>I would strongly recommend against directly attaching vacutainers to
>hickman lines. The vacuum may well collapse the lumens of the line
>rendering blood sampling though I cannot categorically say if this is
>true.
>
>We use a aseptic non-touch technique to access hickmans, using 10 ml
>syringes to obtain the samples. Then the blood samples are transfered
>to the bottles.
>
>Technically you should use nothing smaller than 10mls due to the
>increased pressure smaller syringes offer.
>

> Does anyone have experience in taking blood samples from hickman lines?
> would be interested in your views about what to use. Do any of you use
> vacuette or vacutainer systems? Are there issues about the vacuum in the
> bottles?

> Rosie Morrison wrote...
>> Does anyone have experience in taking blood samples from hickman lines?
>> would be interested in your views about what to use. Do any of you use
>> vacuette or vacutainer systems? Are there issues about the vacuum in the
>> bottles?
>
> Id strongly suggets that you DO use a vacuum system.
>
> The level of vacuum is not sufficent to cause any harm at all to the
> catheter, and it is MUCH safer than any other method.
>
> You will need to discard the first bottle, of course.
>
>
> --
> Andrew Heenan
> http://www.realnurse.net/
>

> Thanks for that
> There is not a lot of information about it out there. I did read an
> article though that said you should not use vacutainers on tunneled
> catheters but I think there is a greater risk of needlestick injury by
> taking the blood via a syringe then transferring the blood to the bottle.
> I would be interested to know if there are any articles about this issue

> Unfortunately, this section of the policy isnt evidence-based and there
> is no rationale for using vacutainer bottles, although there is a list of
> rather dated references at the end. I have no idea whether this policy is
> correct practice or not. Have you asked the manufacturer what they
> recommend? In the event of litigation that is one line that the
> patients legal representatives would pursue!

> Devils Advocate wrote ...
>> Unfortunately, this section of the policy isnt evidence-based and there
>> is no rationale for using vacutainer bottles, although there is a list of
>> rather dated references at the end. I have no idea whether this policy is
>> correct practice or not. Have you asked the manufacturer what they
>> recommend? In the event of litigation that is one line that the
>> patients legal representatives would pursue!
>
> Wise words on the manufacturers recommendations.
>
> But you can take evidence-based practice to the point of re-inventing the
> wheel.
>
> From the catheters point of view, whats the difference between the
> suction applied by a vacutainer, and the suction applied by two hands on a
> syringe?
>
> Only that it has a maximum (the hands dont) and its a consistent force.
> And its (evidence-based) proven to be safer.
>
> When was there evidence based practice on withdrawing blood using two
> hands and a syringe? How much manual force is too much? I think we
> should be told!
>
> --
> Andrew Heenan
> http://www.realnurse.net/
>
>
>