We have a patient with a double lumen valve PICC who's infusion was running good. The nurse stopped it to draw labs and could not flush or aspirate. The nurse had the pt. do all of the "central line aerobics" and no luck. The pt. is obese, left arm placement, stage 3 renal failure (all high risk factors for thrombus build-up). Any ideas about how suddenly this happened? Thanks! Valorie
Did you get xray including the arm? I have had obese patients get a kink in the arm before. Also, tear down the dressing and make sure the line isn't kinked at the exit site. That's all I got!
TY Jill. Last time I had her sent in for xray they just replaced the PICC. :( 2 weeks ago.
Valorie Dunn,BSN, RN, CRNI, PLNC