How is a nasal cannula put on
RT Clinic: Oxygen therapy via nasal cannula
all right so we'll start with a first
low flow oxygen device which is nasal
cannula a standard a is like a no can
deliver 1 to 6 liters of oxygen and
we'll talk about that certainly what
that kind of converts to in the amount
of oxygen they're actually inspiring or
their fraction aspiring oxygen or fio2
so standard cannula nothing really
special about this first of all it will
plug in the flow meter and that's very
fairly simple you have to have a
Christmas tree as we showed before plug
them right here
I always start the oxygen flow turn the
knob counterclockwise let's go with
three liters here the ball was that
right ml of three liters now I'll show
you how to apply it the patient's face
all right so now I'm going to apply this
to the patient's face you're going to
notice that there is a little bit of a
curvature to these cannula prongs as you
can see it what you want to think about
are these going in and following the
path of the nasal cavity nasal cavity
it's not go up it goes back and around
so these things always curve back like
this if you put them on backwards like
this it's going to oxygenate the
epithelial cells on the inside their
nose but not get down into their oral
pharynx down to lungs where you really
need so curving back I always put in the
nose first a little bit of pressure of
course I'm going to put it on this a
year and then I'm going to show you for
this side how it goes over the ear and
under the chin and then this piece right
here kind of goes tight you don't want
to go too tight with it
just enough to secure it and then
sometimes I do a little bit of
adjustment to what feels best for the
patient one real key don't do it too
tight a lot of the tubing's net is now
made so that's soft because this can
cause some a lot of breakdown
hospital-acquired pressure ulcers
especially on the tops of the ears and
then if it's real tight across the skin
right here this course of skin is very
thin and then right on the nose if this
is pulled really tight and it's not
frequently moved so this salad is like
annulus run of course it's going to go
back into the nasal cavity and it's
going to act almost like a reservoir so
when they take their breath in they'll
pull that fraction of inspired oxygen
our lungs and then exhaling take the
next breath in so this is standard a has
a cannula review one to six liters if
the patient is on greater than 3 years
we recommend cubed a humidifier or what
we call it bubbler and what that does it
just helps to humidify the air so
doesn't dry out their hands let me cosa
