I received a call from a home health nurse regarding an IV patient that they had who had compelted their course of IV abt. and the PICC had been pulled at the MD office. Forty-eight hours later the site was still leaking clear fluid-enough that the family were changing the gauze dressing at the site twice daily. They had contacted the MD and his comment was do something to make it stop leaking. They were calling me for any advice I might have. I assumed that the most likely possibility was a "lymph leak" but I have never had one in all of my years of practice. How do you stop it? We did not provide the meds for this patient so I had no records of PICC insertion-according to the home health nurse the PICC was placed at a local hospial by IR. I suggested that she call them and let them know what was going on so they could check their records.
Testing for glucose content on the leaking fluid will confirm if it is lymph - will be very high if it is. I don't think you can choose the right method to stop it until you know what it actually is. Lynn
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, NPD-BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861
So Lynn, just out of curiosity, if it is lymph fluid how do you treat it?
I don't think there is any way to stop the leak without removing the catheter, but I have not done a recent lit search on this question. Lynn
Lynn Hadaway, M.Ed., RN, NPD-BC, CRNI
Lynn Hadaway Associates, Inc.
PO Box 10
Milner, GA 30257
Website http://www.hadawayassociates.com
Office Phone 770-358-7861
The PICC had been removed-still leaking 48 hrs. after removal. Do you just wait it out and it stops on it's own?
This happened to me once. Our lead radiologist pointed out that when this person's PICC was placed, the practitioner went through the muscle and the clear fluid leakage was seroma fluid. It tested positive for glucose. The fluid would seep out after the patient had physical therapy. The leakage continued for about 5 days. We changed the dressing after her daily physical therapy. Then the fluid seepage stopped completely and we never had a problem again. The PICC functioned perfectly the whole time. My advice is to keep your eye on it, keep the site clean/dry. I'll bet the drainage will stop on its own.
Leah RN