guess I should have stuck with port-a-cath! Sounds like I confused a few people. SVAD stands for subcutaneous vascular access device, so SVAD reather than using a brand name. Anyway, any suggestions are appreciated. We use the tubing and blood bag system (weighed to know how many mls) here. We used to use the vacu-bottles but actually had a pt do a "back-up" and he had an air embolus! (he had a #18 in the anticubital. Some people actually felt the difference when we switched, felt the blood wasn't being pulled out of them, hard to know if that was real or the placebo effect. Gail
-----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Blais, Gail Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 10:59 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: SVAD and phleb Does anyone use SVADs for therapeutic phlebotomies? My institution recently had an outpt come in, caused some concern with staff as we've only used them for lab draws. I'm not sure which diagnosis she has, I'm assuming that if it's Hemochromatosis that she's not new at it (when you're trying to draw 500ml of sludge), rather, at the point of maintinance draws and hard to access. Any hints, does and don'ts, etc would be appreciated. Info on using tunneled catheters etc too. Thanks. I think this is my first post to you all, I've hovered for awhile and appreciated the bits of wisdom I've gain from you already. Gail (PICC RN)
