Gambro 200 Faulty herparin pump?

[Sleepyhead]

I am not sure if this is a faulty heparin pump or faulty heparin pump user problem!   

Some mornings I wake up and nearly all the heparin has been used (which is what I would expect).  Others, I wake up and about half of it is left (and, of course, there are clots in the expansion and bubble chambers).  Almost every night, there is quite a lot of blood in the remaining heparin.

I prime the heparin line and make sure it is securely attached, both to the line and in the pump.

However, I don't use a bolus in the machine (I inject it into myself via the dialysis needle before treatment).  The technicians have been round and said it is working fine, although they did say that, as it was an intermittent problem, it may just be chance it was working today.

I noticed that the blood starts travelling down the heparin infusion line almost as soon as I put myself on and I wondered whether the post arterial pump pressure was just too strong for the heparin pump (although the technicians said it should alarm if this is the case and they confirmed that my alarm was working fine).

Has anyone else had this issue with a Gambro?  And did you manage to sort it out?

[Sleepyhead]

Finally resolved this problem.  Rang the technicians who said that the heparin pump was on a screw mechanism and, therefore, once it had turned, the pressure from the machine shouldn't make too much difference.  However, it may make a little bit.  Well, I only had a little bit of fluid in the heparin pump so even a litte bit of back-flow would proportionately make quite a difference.  So - I used the  same amount of heparin but added the same amount again of saline.  Then I doubled the infusion i.e. I was having  .7ml of heparin per hour and I changed this to 1.4ml (.7 of heparin + .7 of saline) - it worked.  There may still be a bit of back flow but it is no longer affecting the lines which are much less clotted.