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USING THE MICROFUSE® EXTENDED RATE INFUSER FOR HEPARIN INFUSIONS A Novel Application for Home Dialysis Procedures The MicroFuse Extended Rate Infuser (ERI) is intended for the small-volume infusion of intravenous drugs. Its typical infusion volumes range from 1 mL to 60 mL, with Rate 1 infusing a bolus dose over 20 to 40 minutes, depending on fill volume and syringe size. The unique feature of the ERI syringe infuser is that Rate 2 extends infusions from periods of 4 hours to up to 24 hours. Baxa has recently learned that the ERI has been used successfully for heparin infusions during home dialysis therapy. The ERI fulfills the need to infuse heparin during treatments that typically are extended to around 8 hours – versus the 2 to 3 hours in a clinic setting. A heparin dose of roughly 500 units per hour is the target during this home dialysis procedure. The simple way to accomplish this is by drawing up 1,000 units per mL, undiluted heparin solution into a 10 mL B-D syringe and selecting Rate 2 on the ERI. The resulting infusion gives a heparin dose of about 555 units per hour, which is well within the acceptable clinical dosage range. Drawing up a little over 0.5 mL heparin per hour of anticipated dialysis treatment is the best way to minimize the total amount of heparin hanging on a patient at any one time. The ERI was originally developed for continuous infusion of certain beta lactam antibiotics, iron complexing agents like deferoxamine and other compatible drugs that require fixed and extended infusion times. The ERI is NOT a programmable infusion device. Infusion times can only be modified by selecting one of the two fixed rates, syringe size and solution fill volume. The MicroFuse Extended Rate Syringe Infuser is providing simple, inexpensive and safe infusion of heparin during extended home dialysis therapy. For this application, more expensive and complicated full-sized infusion pumps and proprietary tube sets are being replaced with a simple, fixed-rate infuser, generic syringes and a microbore tube set. For more information about the Extended Rate Infuser, contact Baxa at 800-567-2292. Return to Newsletter |
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