I Hate Dialysis Message Board
Dialysis Discussion => Dialysis: General Discussion => Topic started by: RightSide on November 02, 2010, 08:28:45 PM
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On October 29, I had posted a rant about how air bubbles in the dialysis lines had caused clotting of those lines and the needles during my dialysis treatment. And that this seemed to be on the verge of damaging my fistula and causing other problems.
I see now that I should NOT have been so quick to accuse the dialysis staff at my center of doing anything wrong. They didn't.
The head nurse at my dialysis center has since learned that the air bubbles in the dialysis lines were caused by faulty tubing. Our Fresenius sales representative visited her today, and admitted that they've been shipping faulty tubing due to poor quality control at their factory. These tubing connectors are prone to loosening during use. I do not know how many other dialysis centers, if any, have received faulty tubing. But evidently this has been going on for at least a month, since a number of other patients at our center have experienced similar problems (air bubbles causing clotting) over the past month.
If your dialysis center uses tubing (hemodialysis lines) produced by Fresenius, you might want to inform your head nurse or center manager that Fresenius has admitted to having a quality control problem with their tubing, and they should discuss this with their own Fresenius sales reps.
In the meanwhile, the head nurse at my center has issued a directive calling for repeated checks of the tubing connections throughout the dialysis session. We can no longer assume that the tubing will work just because it appears to be secure at the start of the session.
And I'm glad to report that the dialysis staff at my center has been exonerated!
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We always tighten the the connectors on our Fresenius lines before use. Some of the connectors are loose some are disconnected.
Because we know this and check beforehand, I (and the centre too, I suppose) have never had the problem you describe.
Your centre sounds a bit slack, RightSide, I wouldn't be heaping it all on Fresenius. It's pretty basic IMHO to check your equipment before you use it.
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Maybe I didn't make myself clear.
Our staff always check the tightness of the connections before starting the dialysis session.
But these defective tubes may loosen up again, at any point during the dialysis session. There may be other defects that cause air leaks too.
So we're going to have to keep tightening the connections over and over through the dialysis session until it's over.
I've volunteered to do this for my own treatment. The machine will be moved close to me, so I can deal with it myself when the staff are busy.
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Sorry to hear about your problem with the Fresenius tubing. A decade ago, there was a recall of Baxter tubing that caused hemolysis due to a narrowing of the defective tubing. We have not hear any more details about this problem you described with the Fresenius but it sounds dangerous as well. Usually the connectors you described are the Luer syringe type connectors and they can be either too tight or too loose. If they are loose on the low side, air can get in and if loose on the high side, it may leak. On the other hand, if they are too tight, they may break when you attempt to loosen it, so you have to be careful as well not to over-tighten the connectors.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luer