What Factors Can Cause Inaccurate Infusion Pump Flow Rate?
Critically ill patients will use many special drugs. Such drugs need to strictly control the dosing rate. Once the dosing rate of only a few milliliters per hour changes, it will have a very large impact. Therefore, the accuracy of fluid and drug delivery is very important.
The too fast a drug infusion rate may cause toxic effects, and too slow a rate may cause the drug dose to be too small to achieve a therapeutic effect. Therefore, in this article, we will discuss the factors related to the inaccurate flow rate of the infusion pump.
1. Related to the infusion set
The infusion pump needs to be used with an infusion set, and different infusion sets have different effects on the flow rate.
The choice of the infusion set has a significant impact on the flow rate of the infusion pump. For example, it is also set to 100ml/h, but for different infusion sets, the actual infusion speed is different.
We should use special consumables for infusion pumps and syringe pumps (infusion lines for pumps, syringes). If there are no special supporting consumables, you should select the corresponding brand and model of consumables according to the instructions for use, and use different flow rate calibration coefficients for different consumables.
And when changing the infusion set of different manufacturers, the coefficient of the infusion pump should be calibrated in time (for how to calibrate, you can contact the manufacturer to ensure that the flow rate is as accurate as possible).
2. Adsorption of drugs
Different infusion sets and different infusion methods have different adsorption effects on drugs. So the same infusion rate, the actual dose of drug reaching the body is not the same. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of drug adsorption.
We recommend that the infusion pump should use a thinner concentration and a slightly faster rate for infusion of special fluids (except for patients with strict fluid restrictions).
3. Effect of pinch time
The infusion tube needs to be installed and clamped in the infusion pump to complete the infusion. With the prolongation of time, the flow velocity has a gradually decreasing trend. Therefore, we suggest that it is recommended to change the position of the clamp every 6 to 8 hours.
4. Startup delay
A start delay is when the start button is pressed but the medication does not begin to be delivered. We, therefore, suggest that these delays can be eliminated with a 2ml bolus prior to connecting the infusion line to the patient.
5. Blocking alarm delay
At low flow rates, infusions have a long occlusion alarm time response, and patients receiving important drugs with short half-lives at low flow rates may experience clinically important treatment interruptions, while at high flow rates the occlusion alarm response time is very short.
When simulating low-flow infusion (5ml/h) of vasoactive agents, the occlusion alarm time was significantly prolonged, especially as the length of the infusion line increased.
Therefore, we recommend that the infusion speed of the infusion pump should not be too slow (reduce the concentration and increase the flow rate), and avoid unnecessary extension tubes.
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