Hello all!  GREAT site. Thank you!
For years, have been taught (and teach) pulsing motion on the line flush helps create fluid turbulance and helps "scrub" a little.
I cannot find articles on this site or in INS Standards saying either way. Any help out there?
My Pedi Intensivist is redoing ALL of the PICU P&P's with evidence-based practices and wants all the documentation in line.
Thanks!
Michael Johnson
Kaiser Santa Clara, CA
There is absolutely no evidence that this pulsatile or turbulent flushing technique is positive, neutral or negative. None! I have looked extensively. In 2005 Roxanne Perucca and I presented a 2 hour talk on Flushing at the INS conference and neither of us found evidence to support this practice. There are a couple of very short opinion, how-to-do-it pieces but no data on outcomes.
Also, there are questions about the negative aspects of this process. If indeed it does detach anything that is adherent to the catheter walls, this could be dislodging biofilm and possibly increasing the risk of CRBSI. Biofilm forms and breaks off at very high flow rates. Again no evidence for this theory either. But I do not teach this practice, never have. Lynn
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, NPD-BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861
Thanks for that info...! Happy New Years!