Objectives:

To determine the half-life of haemofilters in critically ill patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) and the main factors associated with their duration.

Methodology:

Cross-sectional observational descriptive study conducted in a polyvalent adult intensive care unit. The haemofilters placed in 67 patients over 18 years of age between January and November 2019 were studied. Variables: age, sex, weight, admission unit, blood flow velocity, filtration fraction, hourly debit, system anticoagulation, activated thromboplastin time (APTT), medical indication for therapy, cause of withdrawal, catheter location, start and end time of therapy.

Results:

The mean age of the patients was 62.66 years (±9.95), 81 (71.64%) men. A total of 238 haemofilters with a mean lifetime of 26.28 hours (±22.8) were analysed. Femoral catheters accounted for 80.1 %, jugular catheters for 19 % and subclavian catheters for 0.8 %. Sodium heparin was used as anticoagulation therapy in 45.8 %, citrates in 20.2 % and no anticoagulation in 34 %. Mean blood flow velocity was 190.08 ml/min (±53.48). A statistical relationship was found between the variables blood flow (rs=0.208; p=0.001), catheter location and haemofilter duration (p=0.03).

Conclusions:

The half-life of the haemofilter was 26 hours. Blood flow velocity and catheter location are factors that affect the duration of the haemofilter