Applied Anatomy for Clinical Procedures at a Glance. Jane Sturgess

inadvertently causing complications such as pneumothorax or air embolism – take care.

      3 Using a syringe to aspirate a low volume, low pressure system can collapse the tissues if too great a negative pressure is applied. This can either make the drain or line fail or give a false negative result to your aspiration, leading to unnecessary repeated tests (with associated risks) or a false diagnostic conclusion (with associated risks, and delay in diagnosis).

Top tips

      1 Look at the tap and plan how to turn it before you start – which ways do you need fluid/air to flow and at what time points of the procedure?

      2 Plan how to stop flow – you can either turn the tap so that the top of the T with no arm faces the direction you want to stop flow from (usually the patient); you can put a bung onto the Luer lock that has an arm with an arrow pointing towards it; or you can quarter turn the tap so that none of the arms point towards a line – it will lie at an angle to the giving system.

      3 If aspirating low volume or low pressure fluid consider using a small syringe in the first instance and be prepared with a choice of larger syringes. It is easy to switch to a larger syringe during the procedure if the fluid/air flows easily.