Placement, Care and Maintenance of a Portex Thoracic Drainage Kit

Placement

1. With your patient under general anaesthetic select the correct size of drain.
2. Make a skin incision then through that use a stab incision with the trocar/cannula.
3. Whilst holing the cannula 3 to 4 inches from the end withdraw the trocar two thirds of the way out.
4. Clamp off the cannula just in front of the trocar using the sterile scissor clamps provided.
5. Withdraw the trocar the rest of the way.
6. Trim the cannula to the desired length.
7. Insert the supplied adaptor into the end of the cannula.
8. Attach the supplied 3 way tap to the adaptor in the end of the cannula.
9. Secure the drain with an appropriate suture (i.e. A chinese finger trap suture).
10. Attach the supplied luer lock thirty ml syringe to the 3-way tap.
11. Drain off.

Care and maintenance

1. In between draining the cannula cover the stoma site with a sterile dressing and light bandage.
2. Consider using a barrier spray such as 3m cavilon (order code 3346e) below the cannula to decrease the likelihood of mattering and chafing.
3. In cases where you are draining a thick exudate you may want to consider attaching a suction device such as the global continuous suction bulb (order code v-fd-100).

Equipment list

AS176/10 kit containing a 10fg cannula
AS176/12 kit containing a 12fg cannula
AS176/16 kit containing a 16fg cannula
AS176/20 kit containing a 20fg cannula
AS172/10 trocar and cannula
AS172/12 trocar and cannula
AS172/16 trocar and cannula
AS172/20 trocar and cannula
AS172/28 trocar and cannula
AS172/30 trocar and cannula

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