Question

The nephrologist orders a BFR of 300 for a patient with a two month old AV fistula. What gauge needle would be appropriate for this BFR?

A) 16 gauge
B) 18 gauge
C) 20 gauge
D) 22 gauge

Answer 1

For a BFR of 300 mL/min, a 16 gauge needle is appropriate to accommodate the high blood flow rate required for hemodialysis with an AV fistula.

Step-by-step explanation:

For a blood flow rate (BFR) of 300 mL/min in a patient with a two-month-old arteriovenous (AV) fistula, the appropriate needle gauge to use would generally be a 16 gauge needle. The larger the gauge number, the smaller the needle diameter, hence a smaller gauge number is needed to accommodate higher blood flow rates. When dealing with hemodialysis, which requires large volumes of blood to be filtered over a short period, larger needles are typically used to allow for the necessary BFR. So in this case, Option A) 16 gauge would be the appropriate choice for the specified BFR of 300.