Reusing Trach's

[Andrew's Mommy]

My question is after you clean a trach how many times can you use it? And also if you keep it for a back up how long can you keep it for before it's no longer considered "good". Also do trach's really expire I know there's an expiration date but does it really count?

[fostercarer]

re-use trach's twice. they have a rotation of two in a month. So one is in and then its changed for number two on Sunday.
I dont know about use by dates, sorry I am just a learner on all of this but thought I would let you know what they do.

[suzanne2545]

We rotated two trachs for two months. So each one was used for a month. Certainly I think you could use them a bit longer but you will need to watch carefully for wear.

We've been decannulated for a year and a half and I still have an AOL "rotate trachs" alert pop up on my e-mail every two months. LOL.

[Kate]

I don't remember if our ENT said 2 months or 1. I think 2 months. That's about what we do-rotate every week-each tube gets about 4 weeks use. Honestly, I don't always throw them out though if they look good. I take the used one and keep it in the bag for our emergency trach. Hopefully it'll never be used-but I do check it to make sure it is in good condition in case we do need to use it.

[KJKK8437]

I think you'll find answers all across the ranges for this one. Lots of families don't reuse at all, and some never get new ones.

My only advice on this one is to see how your kiddo reacts. It took me awhile to decide that Alex didn't really like the trachs that I'd cleaned. We would use one for a week, then change, then clean the old one, then use it the next week. But, when we were using a trach that wasn't "new" out of the box, he always seemed to be more unhappy, working harder, satting a touch lower on day 6 of the second use, and sometimes sooner. I don't know how to explain it, because it was pretty subtle, and it took us awhile to be sure we weren't just overstressing. But, something wasn't quite right, and we all agreed (me, DH, my mom, even our regular nurse).

I put up some posts about cleaning, to see if maybe I was doing something wrong. The only thing we came up with was that I was using pipe cleaners inside the trach, and someone told me that Cotton's office says don't do that because it scratches the inside of the trach and can allow secretions to accumulate. We stopped doing that, and things did seem to improve, but by then we were gun shy and stopped re-using except as backups or when our shipments were late. Alex just seemed happier with a clean trach all around.

Now, I'd be willing to bet that this was just a picky thing about Alex. He turned out to be totally cool about some things that everyone thought would bug him a lot, and he was super-sensitive about some things that everyone thought should be no big deal at all. (He could use a PMV when his physiology suggested that it should be a lot of work, for example, but he really seemed to suffer in his gross motor skills when his trach was "properly big enough".) I just hate to think of another family spending months like we did thinking it was just a figment of their imagination that their kid could react this way.

In the end, this is a lot of words to say that you should do what you feel is best. If you are careful, it should be fine no matter what.

[faywrayy]

I asked our ENT that very question after I joined this board and realized people were throwing out trachs after 1 use. He said they could be re-used indefinitely, as long as we were watching for wear, etc. Kate had Bivonas the entire 20 mos and we re-used the same 4 trachs the entire time and never had any issues.

[Alethia]

I reuse Angus' trachies for ages and only throw them out if they show signs of wear or after he's had a major chest infection. He's had 1 major chest infection this year, but before that he hadn't been in hospital for over a year.

[mum2dylan]

when dylan was on shileys they were changed weekly and thrown out then at each change....but hes now on bivona and were told to keep one 4 emergency and the other two used every second month..and be cleaned up to 6 times each..then disposed of..we were told never to sick anything down tube when cleaning also..

[Wooders80]

We reuse trachs too. I use them up to 5 times prior to opening new ones. I'll always inspect them really well first though. It has never caused any problems either.

[JWorthington]

We did both. when we had enough we would just throw, when they were in short supply we would reuse for up to a month which is what was recommended by shiley. always after infection requiring antibiotics we would throw them