Neptune suction accuracy

[Mapleson D]

Now, Neptunes may be disappearing and this will all be moot, but...

We all know that the digital readout can be inaccurate as far as volume suctioned. I swear I saw an article once that reported on this problem, a case report, maybe? But now for the life of me I can't find anything. My Google-fu and Pubmed-fu are just totally failing me, except for one brief complaimt to the FDA.

Anyone have any references on this?

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[jwk]

Now, Neptunes may be disappearing and this will all be moot, but...

We all know that the digital readout can be inaccurate as far as volume suctioned. I swear I saw an article once that reported on this problem, a case report, maybe? But now for the life of me I can't find anything. My Google-fu and Pubmed-fu are just totally failing me, except for one brief complaimt to the FDA.

Anyone have any references on this?

The Neptune is a POS IMHO - one of the worst additions to the OR in many years. And the nurses stick it up by us so we get to enjoy the constant noise it produces. Ours have not disappeared, and I doubt they will. Just a new label that says "Don't be stupid and hook it to a chest tube".

I think the manufacturer claims +/- 10% on the readout - which is a huge difference - and of course there is no qualitative clue to blood loss like there used to be in a clear canister. You could have 2000cc of blood in the canister now, or 100cc of blood and 1900cc of fluid and you can't tell the difference. I berated their sales reps from the moment these appeared, but ya know, once someone in the purchasing department thinks they know what is best for you to use, you're screwed.

 

[urge]

Don't know what a Neptune is.

 

[okayplayer]

These things are awful and dangerous in my opinion. As JWK said, all it gives us is a digital readout for the volume in the canister and no way to see how bloody the contents are. Furthermore, at one of our hospitals sometimes the circulators/scrubs would not zero out the machine before each individual procedure, therefore leading to us having no clue what is in there. Other times I would ask the scrub how much irrigation was used and he/she would say 800ml...I'd look at the machine and it would say 250ml.

In short, they are terrible.

 

[Depakote]

Hate those things... I was thrilled when I heard they were being pulled but they seemed to be back in our ORs immediately.

The accuracy of the volumes is awful and as mentioned above, irrigation just screws up the accounting further.

 

[Mman]

I've never had a problem with it. We tend to only use it on a bigger bloodier cases and in those I'm sending ABGs frequently enough that I really don't care how accurate it is.