LSB mentioned in another post that the diagnostic tests done internally on Nxstage throughout the tx lengthen the atcual tx time. By how much does it lengthen it?
Also, NxStage can be set to remove fluid with time remaining in the tx. When the fluid is removed one can up the effluent rate (think that is the term) which I believe speeds up the tx a little. Can anyone explain this?
There is a point in the diagnostic that the pumps are not running. No effluent or blood is moving thru the machine. At that time the machine does not consider that to be part of the tx. We have seen it add up to two hours and as little as 45 minutes to a tx. The two hour day we had a lot of alarms. It has never just done exactly a eight hour run. When we do the math for a eight hour tx it actually says a total of 8:32 in the tx window. Sometimes when I want to speed things up I change the UFR and the DFR. It changes the flow fraction to compensate and it updates the tx time left. I never change the blood pump speed though. I have and it causes problems with my catheter. If you did though you could shave more time off. You see you can only run with a flow fraction of 35 or lower. So once you take the UFR and DFR so far the flow fraction maxs out and the machine will not let you take it anyfurther without speeding the blood pump speed up. It is a very safe machine.
LSB