EBME Forums Forums Maintenance Technical Assistance B_BRAUN INFUSION PUMPS PROBLEMS

Hi Liz

no problem i have a meeting this Friday i will let you know.

would still like to hear from anybody experiencing the same problem or not.

richard

Hi Richard,

Well ,one of our tech guys here has found one of the problems,(he's still awaiting the nobel prize for it),he has found that some of the giving sets in certain batches has a coating on the outside of the tubing, because they use ultrasound to detect 'air in line',this coating is stopping the ultrasound penetrating through and causing false alarms i.e. 'air in line'
Company does know,but have heard nothing from them as such at the moment, its something to do with the way in which they steralize the sets before use!

Very impressive guys, well done. Pls keep us informed (globally) as to how this goes. This is the kind of stuff that makes it all worth while !!


and my apologies to Liz for the use of the term "guys" !!

Hi Rob

we had a major problem at christmas where all our chemo sets were faulty due to a production fault with one fo the machines in the factory in Germany.All the sets were giving false air in line alarms.B-Braun were made aware of this and we eventually received replacement sets.As this machine was used to make the pipe for a range of sets it might have been what caused your problem.

regards

richard

P.S DaveC do you have these pumps and are you having any problems?would also like to know what infusion pumps you use in your neonatal department?

Hi Richard,

I/we operate under a somewhat different system to the NHS trust/public hospital system so the answer to what we have in the NICU is not a simple as it may at first seem. Let me explain.

I work for a private biomed company who work across many different private hospital sites (15 in the area I manage alone). This means we have a wide variation in the makes of equipment used. This depends on different group purchasing policies as well as the individual clinicians preferences. There is little or no standardisation across the board.

The second difference is, perhaps, that as these are private hospitals the units tend more towards the low acuity end of things, not true NICU but more special care units. If the bub is really sick, they get shipped out to one of the high level NICUs at the specialist public units.

With regards to pumps etc, there are (volumetric) Baxters (god help us all), Abbott plum, Imeds, etc. One of our clients have just taken delivery of the Carefusion (Cardinal) system so we shall see how that goes. There are none in my area who use BBraun volumetrics (that I am aware of anyway) but they will come I'm sure. Braun syringe pumps are however quite popular, especially in the SCN areana. Still, in my role as "advisor" on the more technical aspects of equipment purchasing, the notification of problems with giving sets or any other aspect is valuable indeed.

I will have a look through our national database tomorrow and see if anyone else "under our care" is using BBraun volumetrics and get some feedback from them if you wish.

Could people who are using the BBraun Perfusor syringe pump with rev G software contact me off board as I think I have identified a software problem and would like to discuss it with people.
Especially if you are using the drug library software.
Thanks
Robert

cheers dave

rob if you want to give me a call 01493 452468 between 7.30am-15.30pm

richard

We are using the drug library software and still on revision E. How did you get revision G is that how they came or have you been updating the software. We have had nothing from Bbraun in this field.

Billy

We are just commissioning the pumps hence the latest software
Robert

Hi All

conclusion of the meeting with B-Braun concerning the problems with infusing blood: the problems start when the second unit of blood is infused because the blood is taken out of the fridge and the infusion is started within a few minutes, this means initially that cold blood is pumped throught the set, as the blood travels throught the set it warms and then expands and thus release any air trapped when the blood was refridgerated.the pumps senses this air and if it sees more than 0.95 micro litres in a 15 minute period it will alarm accumalated air.the ie regs state that the accumalative air alarm has a maximum of 1 milli litre per 15 minutes(4 milli litres per hour). we have been told to reset the pump after every unit of blood, this will clear the accumalated air.we are going to implement this and i will let you know the outcome.

does anybody out there use a different manufactuer of pump with an accumalative air alarm have the same problems with blood or tpn?

regards

richard