How Do I Flush a Port?

If you have a medical condition that requires large transfusions, such as chemotherapy or intravenous nutrition, your doctor may implant a port under the skin of your chest. Periodically, you or your doctor must flush the port to prevent blockages. Your doctor might instruct you to flush the port with saline, heparin or both of these substances. Heparin thins the blood to help prevent blockages. Follow your doctor's exact instructions regarding how often to flush the port and how to do it. Many patients must flush the port once every four weeks.

Things You'll Need

• Antibacterial soap
• Gloves
• Gauze
• Saline flush
• Heparin flush
• Chlorhexidine gluconate
• Infusion needle
• Alcohol swabs
• Povidone-iodine (PVPI) topical antiseptic swabs
• Needle cap
• Dressing
• Sharps container

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Instructions

• 1

  Wash your hands thoroughly with antibacterial soap and water. Scrub them for at least 30 seconds.

• 2

  Open a package of sterile gloves, and lay them on a sterile surface. Open two packages of sterile gauze, along with saline and heparin flush packages and a chlorhexidine gluconate solution package (it should include a sponge pad), and arrange them on the sterile surface. Open an infusion needle and place it on the sterile surface, ensuring that you do not touch any part of the needle.

• 3

  Put on the gloves, and twist the valve on the needle.

• 4

  Locate the two devices on either side of the chlorhexidine gluconate applicator. They have the appearance of wings. Pinch them together to apply the chlorhexidine gluconate to the sterile sponge. Place the sponge over the port, and apply gentle pressure. Cleanse the area around the port with the sponge for about one minute. Alternatively, your doctor may have instructed you to use alcohol swabs. Use three alcohol swabs to clean the port and the surrounding skin.

• 5

  Allow the skin and the port to air dry. Do not blow onto the skin to speed the drying process, which could introduce germs to the area. If you used alcohol swabs to sterilize the area, clean the area again with three povidone-iodine (PVPI) topical antiseptic swabs after the alcohol dries.

• 6

  Use one of the sterile gauze pads to pick up the saline syringe and twist it on the valve located on the port's tubing. Depress the syringe until you see saline emerge. Place the syringe and the tubing on the sterile surface, keeping them connected.

• 7

  Pick up the needle by grasping its wings and folding them back. Remove the needle's cap, but do not touch the needle.

• 8

  Push the needle into the port at a 90-degree angle until you feel it reach the port's back wall. Depress the plunger to release the amount of saline your doctor prescribed. If your doctor also prescribed heparinized saline, you must also inject this solution.

• 9

  Hold the port steady with one gloved hand while pulling out the needle with the other.