Right Heart Failure
Patient Management
Patient Management Topics
Handling Impella RP® Suction Alarms
Suction is most often caused by inadequate preload or malposition.
As with all other Impella® heart pumps, if a suction alarm occurs:
- Decrease P-level to break suction.
- Evaluate patient volume status. Maintain a positive CVP.
- Check Impella RP position and adjust as needed using chest X-ray, fluoroscopy, or echocardiography.
- When suction is resolved, return to previous P-level.
If position and preload are acceptable and suction cannot be resolved at P-2 or P-3, momentarily stop the Impella RP to break the suction event and restart immediately.
Note that this is different from handling suction alarms with other left-sided Impella heart pumps.
Online Calculators
NPS-1193