Heparin versus saline flushing solutions in a small community hospital

Since no nursing policy on flushing procedures existed in their small community hospital, the authors thought it would be useful to clarify recent reports of the equivalency of saline to heparin flushes in their patient group before establishment of such a policy. They conducted a 2 month double-blinded, cross-over study of catheter failures when using either saline or heparin 10 units/mL flushing solutions. All medical and surgical floor patients were included in the study. Floor nurses were used as observers and characterized catheter failures as either loss of patency or phlebitis. Heparin was shown to cause more phlebitis than saline (p less than .025), but no difference was found between the two flushing solutions in loss of patency. Data revealed a statistically significant advantage to using saline flushes when both loss of patency and phlebitis were combined (p less than .05). They recommended adoption of a flushing procedure which did not contain heparin.