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In this video, we’ll show how to change the dressing over a Tenckhoff catheter exit site. The exit site is the place where the catheter leaves the body. We’ll show a caregiver helping, but you can also change your own dressing.
Change the Primapore® dressing and UC strip and clean the exit site and catheter once a week. If the Primapore dressing or UC strip gets dirty or wet, change it right away.
First, choose a flat work surface. Don’t use your bathroom.
Clean the surface,
then clean your hands with soap and warm water or an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.
If you’re washing your hands with soap and water, wet your hands and put soap on them. Rub your hands together for at least 20 seconds, then rinse them. Dry your hands with a clean paper towel and use that same towel to turn off the faucet.
If you’re using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer, use enough to cover both of your hands. Rub your hands together so the hand sanitizer covers them. Keep rubbing them together until they’re dry.
Next, set up your supplies. You’ll need medical gloves, 5 gauze pads, 1 no-sting barrier film protective wipe, 1 Primapore dressing, and 1 UC strip catheter fastener or another Primapore dressing. A UC strip is also called an H dressing.
You’ll also need a trash can, a bowl of fresh water, and a bowl of warm, soapy water. Use a gentle hand or body soap.
If you use adhesive tape remover pads, set out 2 of them as well.
Open the packaging for the Primapore dressing, UC strip, and no-sting barrier film. Also open the adhesive tape remover pads if you’re using them.
Then, put on the medical gloves.
Take off the UC strip or Primapore dressing holding the catheter in place. Gently take off the Primapore dressing covering the exit site,
holding the catheter near the exit site to keep the dressing from pulling it.
If you need to, use the adhesive tape remover pads to make them easier to take off.
Throw away the old dressing in the trash. Take off the gloves and throw them in the trash, and then clean your hands again.
Put on a new pair of gloves. Dip a gauze pad in the soapy water, then squeeze out any extra water until it’s no longer dripping.
Hold the catheter firmly in your non-dominant hand to keep it from getting pulled. This is the hand you don’t write with.
Clean the exit site and skin around it with the soapy gauze pad. Use a circular motion starting close to the exit site and moving outward, then drop the gauze into the trash.
Dip a new gauze pad into the fresh water, then squeeze out any extra water. Keep holding the catheter in your non-dominant hand.
Rinse the exit site and skin around it with the wet gauze pad, using the same motion, then drop the gauze into the trash.
Dip a new gauze pad in the soapy water, then squeeze out any extra.
Wrap the gauze around the catheter at the exit site. Keep holding the catheter to keep it from being pulled.
Slide the soapy gauze down the catheter to clean it, then drop the gauze into the trash.
Dip a new gauze pad in the fresh water, then squeeze out any extra.
Wrap the gauze around the catheter at the exit site. Keep holding the catheter.
Slide the gauze down the catheter to rinse it, then drop the gauze into the trash.
Dry the catheter and skin with a dry gauze pad.
Wipe the skin around the exit site with the no-sting barrier film wipe.
Check for signs of infection, such as redness, bad-smelling drainage, leakage around the exit site, or a fever of 100.4 °F (38 °C) or higher.
If you notice any of these, call your doctor after you finish changing the dressing.
Place a Primapore dressing over the exit site so the exit site is in the center of the dressing.
If you’re using a UC strip to hold the catheter in place, peel the paper backing off the center of the strip.
Place the center of the UC strip about halfway down the catheter. Pinch it so it wraps around the catheter.
Decide where on your abdomen you’re going to place the UC strip. There should be a gentle curve in the catheter, so it isn’t pulled, stretched tight, or bent.
Peel the paper backing off one side of the UC strip and smooth that side down onto your abdomen. Repeat this with the other side.
If you’re using another Primapore dressing to hold the catheter in place, place it about halfway down the tube so it isn’t pulled, stretched tight, or bent.
Once the catheter is held in place, take off your gloves and drop them in the trash.
Then, clean your hands.
Call your MSK primary doctor if the exit site is leaking and getting the dressing wet. They may want to change your drainage schedule.
For more information about caring for a Tenckhoff catheter, visit msk.org/pe and search “Tenckhoff.”
If you have any questions, contact your healthcare provider.
