How do you know they are allergic to the Biopatch? I am assuming that you are meaning an allergy to chlorhexidine but how do you know that this what they are actually allergic to.
Are you putting the biopatch on dry skin? If you've recently used chorhexidine+IPA, did you let it air dry long enough? Minimum of one minute dry time....
Otherwise: we are also looking at Silverlon, and another silver disc product from Medline (don't know much about that one yet).
Mari Cordes, BS RN
Nurse Educator IV Therapy
Fletcher Allen Health Care, Burlington VT
Educator, Bard Access Systems
Mari Cordes, BS RNIII VA-BC
Vascular Access Department
University of Vermont Medical Center
We have had both scenarios - allergy to chlorhexidine and sensitivity to only the Biopatch. Yes, Biopatch is placed on dry skin.
A few patients have reported that the entire time the Biopatch was against their skin they itched. When removing the Biopatch the skin was red. No problem once it was removed and only cleansed with Chlorprep.
This is a very small number of people, however, we would like an alternate product for them. We have looked at DeRoyal silver. The problem is since it is such a small number of people it will be difficult to truly evaluate.
We will be trialing the new 3M CHG tegaderm to replace the biopatch. We have not really experienced any skin problems with the bioptach but have had a few complaints about itching under the disc. We feel it is the material the disc is made from rather then the CHG. We have more concerns with other aspects of the biopatch such as site observation that we would like to correct and thus we are trialing the 3M product.
How do you know they are allergic to the Biopatch? I am assuming that you are meaning an allergy to chlorhexidine but how do you know that this what they are actually allergic to.
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, BC, CRNI
www.hadawayassociates.com
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861
Are you putting the biopatch on dry skin? If you've recently used chorhexidine+IPA, did you let it air dry long enough? Minimum of one minute dry time....
Otherwise: we are also looking at Silverlon, and another silver disc product from Medline (don't know much about that one yet).
Mari Cordes, BS RN
Mari Cordes, BS RNIII VA-BC
Vascular Access Department
University of Vermont Medical Center
We have had both scenarios - allergy to chlorhexidine and sensitivity to only the Biopatch. Yes, Biopatch is placed on dry skin.
A few patients have reported that the entire time the Biopatch was against their skin they itched. When removing the Biopatch the skin was red. No problem once it was removed and only cleansed with Chlorprep.
This is a very small number of people, however, we would like an alternate product for them. We have looked at DeRoyal silver. The problem is since it is such a small number of people it will be difficult to truly evaluate.
We can let you know what our experience is with the two Silver products - may be a month or two minimum.
Mari Cordes, BS RN
Mari Cordes, BS RNIII VA-BC
Vascular Access Department
University of Vermont Medical Center