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In this video, we’ll show how to drain liquid from your abdomen using a Tenckhoff catheter. Liquid buildup in your abdomen is called ascites.
It’s important to drain the liquid every day, unless your healthcare provider gives you different instructions.
Your healthcare provider will recommend an amount for you to drain based on how comfortable you feel after draining. Follow their instructions.
Never drain more liquid than your healthcare provider told you to without talking with them first. Draining too much liquid can be unsafe and can make you sick.
Always write down how much liquid you drain and how you feel after draining. Your healthcare provider will use this information to decide how much liquid you’ll need to drain. Use the Drainage Record chart to keep track.
Here’s how to drain liquid from your abdomen using a Tenckhoff catheter. We’ll show a caregiver helping, but you can also drain liquid from your own abdomen.
First, choose a work area with a clean, flat surface. Make sure there’s room for a chair and a low table or other short, steady object. It should be short enough that the measuring pitcher is below the person’s abdomen when they’re sitting in the chair. Don’t use a bathroom as your work area.
Clean your work area and the low, flat surface, then spread clean paper towels over the low surface.
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 in your work area. You’ll need a new red sterile cap, 2 alcohol wipes, hand sanitizer, medical gloves, a plastic measuring pitcher, your Drainage Record chart, and a trash can.
Have the person sit on the chair and place the measuring pitcher on the short table near them.
Open the package with the new red sterile cap, but don’t touch the cap yet. Leave it in the package for now.
Open the alcohol wipes.
If you’re using medical gloves, put them on.
Hold the catheter in your non-dominant hand. This is the hand you don’t write with.
You may need to take off the UC strip or Primapore® dressing holding the catheter in place. This depends on where the catheter is and how much you can move it.
Check that the flow switch is in the “Off” position, away from the red cap. Using your dominant hand, gently twist the red cap off the flow switch and
drop the cap in the trash can. Don’t let go of the catheter.
Scrub the exposed end of the flow switch with an alcohol wipe for 15 seconds,
then, let it dry for 15 seconds. Drop the alcohol wipe in the trash.
Hold the end of the flow switch over the measuring pitcher. Don’t let it touch the sides of the pitcher.
Slide the flow switch to the “On” position. You’ll hear a click,
and liquid will start to flow into the measuring pitcher. It can take 5 to 10 minutes for all the liquid to drain.
If the liquid stops draining but you think there’s still some left in the abdomen, have the person shift from side to side.
If no liquid comes out at all, make sure you took the cap off the end of the catheter and the flow switch is firmly clicked in the “on” position.
Have the person change positions by shifting their body from side to side
and make sure the catheter isn’t bent.
If these steps don’t fix the problem, call your MSK primary doctor.
Once you’ve drained the amount your healthcare provider told you to, slide the flow switch back to the “Off” position.
Scrub the end of the flow switch with the second alcohol wipe for 15 seconds,
then, let it dry for 15 seconds.
Drop the wipe in the trash can.
Twist the new red sterile cap onto the end of the flow switch. Don’t twist the cap on too tight. If you do, you may break it or not be able to take it off next time.
Check how much liquid is in the measuring pitcher and note what it looks like. Then, flush it down the toilet.
Clean the pitcher with antibacterial dish soap and dry it with a clean paper towel.
If you were wearing gloves, take them off and drop them in the trash can. Clean your hands again.
In the Drainage log, write down the date and time, the amount of liquid you drained, what the liquid looked like,
and if the person felt any pain or discomfort.
If you took off the UC strip or Primapore dressing holding the catheter in place, put another one on.
Call your MSK primary doctor if:
• You feel lightheaded or dizzy
• You have a fever of 100.4 °F (38 °C) or higher
• You have much less or much more drainage than usual
• The drainage looks different than usual
• The drainage is bloody or cloudy or smells unusual
• Or if you have any questions or concerns
Call your MSK Interventional Radiology doctor if you:
• Have redness around the catheter exit site.
• Have pain at the catheter exit site or in your abdomen.
Or think the catheter may have been pulled out of place.
For more information about caring for a Tenckhoff catheter, visit www.msk.org/pe and search “Tenckhoff catheter.”
If you have any questions, contact your healthcare provider.
