EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Technical Assistance Suction Filters.

Does anyone have a policy on changing these.
There are several different frequencies suggested by different suppliers.
Some say high risk areas every 3 months or when wet / soiled. Low risk every 12 months.
Others say after every normal days use or when wet / soiled.
Basically I'm looking to see if anyones done a definative study into it and come up with a policy to cover all or do you just follow the suppliers frequency.

We were asked this question by infection control in January 2006, so I email Therapy Equipment. And got the response below.

Pipeline Protector (Hydrophobic) Filters

All types of filter whether High, Low or Thoracic should be changed immediately if they become wet or discoloured.

In high usage areas such as Critical Care and ITU it is advised that they are changed every three months. In all other low usage areas such as General wards is advised that they be changed at least annually.

Try the Therapy Equipment website and look under Jars and liners

We gave our finding to infection control and ICU and still waiting for a reply. I think it is import to follow manufactory recommendation. We use the Abbots suction liner that has a built in hydrophobic filter. So all you need to worry about is the nurse plumbing them in correctly.

A.M

About the Abbots suction liner that has a built in hydrophobic filter, the usual hydrophobic filter connected to vacuum inlet is not necessary anymore, right?

This is an old subject but you could argue that the filter in the liner is there to protect against the liner overflow. And the filter at the suction controller is there to protect firstly the suction controller and then more importantly the pipeline.
E.G Most, if not all modern controllers will not operate without some sort of filter or float cut off attached. If a user connnects a drain to the controller direct (by passing the liner) the consequences of the secretions getting sucked up into the pipeline could result in both plant and pipeline failure or mass contamination of the pipeline.
Believe it or not some 20 odd years ago we used to flush vacuum pipelines and you would be shocked at what would come out at the plant end.

Dont have a policy and havent looked into it in detail but i change ours every 6 months unless visually contaminated. Work in ICU, gonna check them all tomorrow though. Changed them in July so will make it 3 monthly from now on.
They were all ok, not discoloured or any thing but think its wise to change them sooner for the price of them.

Hi Gents
i have read a medical paper from a Sue Arnold at The Royal Hallamsire Hospital Sheffield Jessops Wing.
I cant recall word for word but it did set down some very good guidelines relating to filters on Vacuum.Perhaps you could contact her.

sorry missed the H out of Hallamshire

Thanks Showman, might just do that.
Q

Thanks KM, I'm going to 'cross charge' the wards now.

After a very comprehensive study on portable suction units and there setup we have decided to remove filters from the units. We have mostly LSU (laerdal suction units) attached to crash trolleys the lsu is very tight for space and does not allow for the filter to be attached without leaks. From the checks with have completed the loss of suction and the ability of some staff to replace the filter correctly reduces the LSU's suction considerable. Adding to this we are constantly getting calls on poor suction. What about the unit and damage to the motor well we havent had any (so far). The number of calls has reduced and there has being very few queries on suction strength.