H.5 Assessment of Dialysis Catheter Flow at time of placement

While in the critical care unit, patients often require large venous line placement to initiate temporary dialysis. When placing these lines, positioning of the line in the blood vessel can be critically important as they need to sustain high rates of blood flow. This requires an adequate reservoir of blood, so if a line is too deep or against the wall of a vessel, it may allow for low rates of flow on placement but fails to function adequately when connected to a dialysis machine.

If blood flow rates are inadequate, dialysis machines report access pressures that are “too negative” and will shut off. This causes loss of blood, failure to run the machine, and doesn’t allow the patient to get dialysis. To correct the problem, this often requires a second procedure where the venous line is replaced or adjusted in an attempt to allow higher flows.

The proposed project is to create a device that would determine access pressure at the time the original line is placed, so that the line can be adjusted immediately or replaced if this pressure does not meet standards for the dialysis machine. This would save the patient a second procedure as well as reduced venous manipulation, blood loss, and time to initiation of dialysis.