The following image is an example of a penrose drain (3).Īctive drains use actual pressure, typically negative pressure, to help remove excess fluid from the body.Īn example of an active drainage system would be a Jackson-Pratt (JP) ® drain or hemovac ®. The area surrounding the opening is often lightly covered with gauze to collect fluid as it drains and must be changed when saturated (2). A penrose drain is a relatively flat, ribbon-like tube that creates a passage from a wound to the open air, which allows any excess fluid to simply flow outward (2). An example of passive drainage would be placing a foley catheter to gravity or using a penrose drain. Passive drainage allows for gravity to help remove excess fluid, without the use of pressure (2). Medical drains can be divided into multiple categories.ĭrains are often described as being active or passive. It can also increase the chance of infection (1). Excess fluid in the surgical site can cause significant pain as well as injury to surrounding tissues and organs (1). The accumulation of fluid in the wrong place can have a detrimental effect on the patient’s health and healing (1). Finally, if a patient develops an abscess, a drain is often required to help remove the infected fluid more quickly.ĭrains serve a very important purpose (other than driving the patient and his/her nurses crazy). A chest tube is a good example of this type of drain. Drains may also be placed to help remove fluid or air from body cavities. Certain organs may require a drain to assist with the removal of their contents, such as foley catheters or nasogastric tubes. A common type of surgical drain is the Jackson-Pratt ®. Often, they are placed at the end of a surgery or percutaneously to help eliminate any fluid that may accumulate within the wound. Fortunately, like anything else, managing drains becomes much easier with experience and a little education.Ī patient may require drain placement for various reasons. Nobody wants to be the one to make that call to the doctor about a malfunctioning drain. What’s worse, a patient may suffer a serious delay in recovery if something goes wrong. They often come with a specific set of instructions that can be somewhat confusing. You need to flush it every X hours, record the output every X hours, call the doctor if _ happens…” Before long, your head is spinning, and then you realize you’ve been spelling ‘abscess’ incorrectly for who knows how long! You think to yourself “I really need to know more about the nursing care of drains!”ĭrains can be intimidating, especially with little to no prior experience in drain management. Then the outgoing nurse says something that makes your heart skip a beat. You find your patient assignment and head over to get report. Picture this: you walk into your hospital unit, fresh off a good night’s sleep.
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