This is a firt for me. I got a phone call from on eof our home health case managers who went to do a port needle change on a patient who was discharged from the hospital with his port accessed. She could not get the huber needle out. I am not sure what brand of huber needle this was but it had been placed on Thursday and since out nurses are not sure of hospital technique being proper they always change PICC dressings and port needles on admission. I have never encountered this or heard of such a thing. Has anyone else? Lynn, have you ever encountered this or have any suggestions? The nurse did what she could to cleanse around the huber needle and redressed it then sent to patient to the ER.
Thanks, Valorie Dunn, BSN, RN, CRNI
Valorie,
I have seen this before as well. The case is similar. What we found was that the hospital placed a Huber needle that was too long and bend the tip of the needle creating a barb that kept us from removing the needle with ease.
This patinet was seen in our office not the home. I went with the patient to the surgical clinic. The surgeon removed the needle with a lot of effort and part of the rubber dome was noted to be in the barb. This patient got a new port that day. Good call on your staff.
Craig
Craig Farris RN, CRNI
Clinical Nurse liaison
For several years now, there have been issues reported with port access needles. Go to this FDA site to read more about this issue
Safety Communications > Information about Huber Needles
This is primarily about the problem of some brands coring the septum of the port reservoir. Additionally if too much pressure is applied to the needle, the bevel tip can be bent causing the problem you described. Any port with a cored section can never be used for infusion because it would leak into SC tissue. Lynn
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
126 Main Street, PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861