We are revising our guidelines for arterial lines. Currently we add heparin and lidocain to our arterial flush and run it with 0.5ml/h to 1.0ml/h. 

How do you handle intraarterial lines and are you aware of any literature on the subject?

we use heparin flush 0.5ml/h

Lidocain?

we use heparin 1unit/ml of NS  0.5-1 ml/hr

Lidocain?

 

The idea is to reduce arterial spasm.

We use 0.45% saline with hwparin 1unit/ml running at 0.5ml/hr for UAC or 0.8ml for PAL

Thanks for your answers. Any other arterial flush compositions used?

 

Another question: I was recently asked how we can return the blood drawn as waste before obtaining samples. Especially for the very preterm this will be quite a big volume of blood withdrawn. We currently return this blood via a venous line. Any thoughts about doing this via an arterial line? I would be concerned about possible clots developing while blood is drawn into the syringe.