Fast Methods for Proper OG Feeding Tube Placement Confirmation
Feeding tubes provide essential nutrients to patients unable to eat. However, severe complications can arise if the tube’s placed incorrectly. Traditional confirmation methods involving auscultation or radiographic imaging have proven unreliable or introduce unnecessary radiation exposure.
Newer methods utilizing carbon dioxide detectors or pH papers avoid these downsides but have limitations. This article overviews available techniques and explains why RightSpotpH’s Indicator offers the fastest, safest confirmation.
Traditional Methods and Their Drawbacks
Auscultation
This century-old method involves pushing air through the tube while listening over the stomach with a stethoscope. Research shows its accuracy’s been widely disproven, and evidence indicates 56% of misplaced tubes go undetected. Auscultation also risks tubes’ exposure to air and contamination.
Radiographic Imaging
X-rays can reliably show tube locations but repeatedly expose your patients to radiation. Transporting critically ill patients for imaging also heightens financial costs and health risks for you. Your patients must wait 30 minutes to several hours for actionable results.
Newer Methods Remain Limited
Carbon dioxide detectors and pH testing were introduced to avoid drawbacks with traditional confirmation techniques. But these newer methods also face considerable limitations:
Carbon Dioxide Detectors
These devices connect to feeding tubes, using colorimetric indicators to detect CO2 exhalations from respiratory tracts, signaling incorrect placements to you. However, carbon dioxide naturally exists in intestines too, causing ambiguous color changes in up to 18% of gastric placements. This requires you to order unnecessary X-rays.
pH Testing
Testing aspirates’ acidity flushed from your patient’s feeding tubes indicates gastric placements when readings are below 5.5 pH. Widely available pH papers only show approximate color comparisons, however, lacking the accuracy you need for reliable testing.
The RightSpotpH® Solution
RightBio Metrics designed RightSpotpH® as a specialized pH indicator overcoming limitations with other feeding tube verification approaches. It combines the speed of auscultation and carbon dioxide detectors with superior reliability from X-rays and precision pH testing.
Here’s how RightSpotpH improves patient safety through accelerated, protected, highly accurate pH analysis:
Accuracy
RightSpotpH® uses an FDA-cleared quantitative pH meter precisely assessing aspirate samples by 0.1 pH increments between 0-7 pH. This accuracy surpasses subjective color interpretations with pH papers and avoids ambiguous CO2 readings from intestinal gasses. Multiple studies validate 99% accurate gastric placement confirmations.
Speed
The fully disposable RightSpotpH® Indicator provides you definitive pH readings in just 60 seconds – no other verification method is quicker. Its sealed testing chamber also eliminates infection risks to you, along with PPE requirements and time-consuming disinfection between tests. This allows you to immediately check placement at bedside without waiting for imaging results as complications escalate for your unstable patients.
Safety
The closed RightSpotpH® system prevents feeding tubes’ contamination by not exposing them to room air. It also protects you, your patients, and other clinicians from aspirate contact versus visual pH assessments. Unnecessary radiation exposure is avoided too. These safety advantages suit your ICU’s most vulnerable patients without introducing new complications from delays.
Ready to Try The RightSpotpH® Indicator?
RightSpotpH improves patient safety through accelerated, protected, highly accurate pH analysis of feeding tube placement. As the only FDA-cleared and CLIA-waived device designed explicitly for this application, it represents the new gold standard. To request a free live demo of the RightSpotpH® Indicator, click here.
