Email Discussion Group: Heparinized Flush Bowls & Bags

(Thank you to Charlene Houston RN, Winchester, VA, for the current discussion group question, above). We use 2,000U of heparin in 1L of NS for our flush bowls and 1000U of heparin in 500 of NS for the flush bags. This flush bag comes as a standard mixed bag from Baxter. This is our standard heparin mix for all Art lines in the hospital, so we can convert our flush tubing an bags to an Art line real easy, without changing to a different concentration. Bill Colditz, RCIS Manager, Cardiac Cath Lab Mercy San Juan Medical Center wcolditz@chw.edu We use 2000u heparin in 1000ml NS for flush bowels and 1000u/500mlNS for flush/ pressure lines. paulawilliams_is@hotmail.com We mix 3000U/500cc NS. Each procedure has two bags of flush; one for the table, one to hang and connect to the manifold. Mark E. Davis, RN Cardiac Cath Lab Manager The Heart Center, P.C. Huntsville, AL mdavis@theheartcenter.md Our angiography laboratory uses heparin (1000 Units : 500 ml. of 0.9% NaCl) 2 units/ml. for our flush bowls. The solution is actually the same as the premixed bags of heparinized solution we use to maintain our arterial lines. T.R., Tampa, FL Trimes@aol.com In our cath lab (Lawrence and Memorial Hospital, New London, CT), we use heparin 2u/ml in both our flush bowls and our bags. Michele Morgan RN, BSN Lawrence and Memorial Hospital New London, CT lmcathlab@yahoo.com We use 5000u for 500cc Nacl in our flush bowls. We use the same concentration, 100u/ml in our gtts. Tim Revell trev@dundee.net Johns Hopkins Hospital cath lab uses 2000 Units of heparin in 500 cc NSS for bowel and bag flash. Eve Rostek erostek@starpower.net With regards to flush , we used 2000 u in 1000 ml NS and in the flush bags we used 1000 u in 500 of NS. We have 2 cath rooms and 1 E.P. lab. We do have procedures with an average of 14“20 a day, varying from peripheral to cardiac cath. George Robert Victoriano III B.S.N., R.N. Mc Allen Medical Center, Cath lab Mc Allen Texas grvictoriano@hotmail.com We use 5,000U of heparin in 1L of NS bag for our flush bowl and the 5,000U of heparin in 1 L of NS bottle for our flush basin and 1,000U of heparin in 500ml of NS premixed bags for the art.line. Elise Li, Sunnybrook & Women’s College Health Sciences Centre Cath Lab, Canada, tedont@ipoline.com In our cath lab, we use 3000u in 500cc bag of NS for flush and flush bowls. Heather Burg, RN Huntsville, AL h_burgrn@hotmail.com In the facility I work in, we use 5000Units of heparin in 1000ml of normal saline. In the dump station the flush bag is 1000Units of heparin in 500 ml of normal saline. joann@skylink.net We use 3000U heparin in 500ml NS for both flush bowls and bags. Kurt Rutter RN Poughkeepsie, NY kurtrutter@earthlink.net

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