Your Bulb Drain

Overview

After your surgery, you will go home with one or two bulb drains in place. The drains will remove fluid from your wound in order to promote healing. The drains generally do not cause pain. You will be shown how to care for your bulb drain and the site where the drain tubing enters your body.

A homecare nurse will visit you in your home the day after your discharge to review these instructions.  

First Two Days at Home

It is recommended that you do not shower for the first two days. Once a day you or your partner MUST clean the area where the drain tubing enters your body and change your gauze:

• Get your supply bag and set up your supplies: gauze, tape, hydrogen peroxide, sterile swabs.
• Wash your hands thoroughly with antibacterial soap and water. Anyone who may be assisting you should wash their hands thoroughly as well.
• Remove the gauze from around the drain
• Dip the sterile swab in peroxide and gently clean the skin around the drain. Use a circular motion and move away from the drain site.
• Using a new sterile swab each time, repeat this step until the skin is clean
• Open a new package of gauze and recover the area where the drain tubing enters your body
• Wash your hands with antibacterial soap and water.
• Put your supplies away in a clean dry area
• Change the dressing covering the drain whenever it becomes wet or soiled

Third Day at Home

Shower or gently wash the area where the drain tubing enters your body once a day

• Let the flow of water gently rinse the area where the drain tubing enters your body
• You may use non-perfumed soaps (i.e. Ivory, Neutrogena)
• Always pat dry. Never rub your skin
• Reapply gauze after cleaning

When to Call Your Doctor

• If your reservoir cannot be reactivated
• If your drain falls out
• If the stitch holding the drain tube comes out
• If the drainage fluid in the reservoir becomes foul smelling
• If you have a fever
• If there is any increased redness, swelling, or abnormal drainage from the drain site
• If there is an air leak, fluid leak, or any other malfunction of the drain bulb
• If clots form in the tubing and block drainage and cannot be cleared by “milking” the drain tube
• If the reservoir is not collecting fluid

Emptying the Drain Bulb (Reservoir)

• You or your caregiver will need to empty and reactivate the drain bulb. (see enclosed directions “Care Instructions: How to Empty Your Drain”)
• You will need to record the amount of fluid collected in the reservoir.
• Empty the reservoir as many times a day as directed by your doctor or nurse.
• Empty the reservoir into the measuring cup before the fluid reaches the 100 cc mark.
• Do not let the reservoir fill completely because this will cause drainage to stop.

Keeping Records of Drainage

• Keep a record of the amount of fluid collected in the reservoir (there is a chart you can use following these instructions)
• Record the date, time, and amount of fluid that has accumulated from each reservoir (if you have more than one reservoir, label them “reservoir #1, reservoir #2, etc)
• Flush the drainage fluid down the toilet and clean the measuring cup with soap and water.

“Milking” or “Stripping”the Drain Tube

To keep the drain working well, you will be shown how to “milk” the drain tube at least once per day. You and your caregiver should wash your hands before handling the drain tube.

Never disconnect the tubing from the bulb!