My hospital does not allow nursing staff to running incompatibles though a dual lumen PICC. I am wondering if there are other hospitals that have this practive. I am working to hopefully to have this change so we can run incompatibles though a dual lumen PICC and then hopefully we could bring in triple lumen PICCs.
Infusing incompatible medications through the same lumen is the problem. That is the reason for having a double lumen or triple lumen catheter. All of those lumens are completely separate for the entire length of the catheter so that incompatible medications can be infused without contact in the catheter lumen. I would want to know who wrote this policy and what they were thinking. For a few medications like Dilantin or Valium, there could be an issue when the drugs meet other solutions in the bloodstream at the catheter tip. This is thought to be less of an issue when the tip is in the SVC with the rapid blood flow quickly diluting the medications. In these limited situations, you can still give the meds although you might need to stop the infusions through one lumen while the medication is given through a second lumen. But you can use a double lumen for these infusions. 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