We have kiddos who have Ethanol locks ordered 3 times per week to dwell during the day after their TPN infuses at night. When attempting to draw off the Ethanol we are unable to flush the line or have blood return. Considering Ethanol is not classified as a anticoagulant, we are curious if others are having this issue? What have you done to prevent the need for Cathflo?
We have used Ethanol locks with some of our pediatric patients. Occasionally we have a problem with not having blood return, but this doesn't happen often. The lines we use with Ethanol are generally the tunneled catheters (Hickman, Broviac). I don't know of anything special that we do for flushing routines, etc. Minimum dwell is 2 hours, max 24 hours. Could it be related to your needless end cap and how it is being mechanically flushed? We tend to have more problems of needing to flush a little before we can get a blood return, which means that you are then flushing the Ethanol into the pt. Most of the time we can eventually get blood return.
Janine Pritchett, RN-BC, BSN, VA-BC
Clinical Educator - Vascular Access