Trach Tube Cleaning

• The first thing you should know how to do is to clean the trach tube. This helps keep the tube clear and prevent infection. The trach tube has two parts which snap together, the inner and outer cannula. To clean this, get a small bowl with liquid soap and position a mirror so you can see your face and neck. After washing your hands, unlock the inner tube and remove it from the outer tube. Make sure you remove it gently as doing this too fast can cause damage to your throat. Once the inner cannula has been removed, place a clean one into the outer cannula immediately. Take your dirty cannula and place it in the soapy water. You will want to scrub it with a small brush to get any dirt off of it. Once the cannula has been scrubbed clean, rinse the soap off of it and let it dry.
  
  

Trach Tube Suctioning

• If you can't get mucus out of the tube, you may need to suction it away. To start, you will need a suction machine with tubing, a small bowl, sterile water, sterile latex gloves and a suction catheter. Attach the suction tubing to the machine and turn it on (you will want to set it at -80mm and -120 mm Hg). Fill your bowl with the sterile water and set the bowl aside. Make sure your hands are washed and sterile and then place the sterile gloves on your hands.
  
  Now hook one end of the suction catheter to the tubing and place one end in the sterile water. This will help it enter your trach tube easier. After taking a few deep breaths, gently feed the catheter into the tube until it pushes against something. Make sure you do not cover the catheter's control valve as this will start the suctioning process. Slowly pull the catheter out of the tube while covering and uncovering the control valve. Try not to keep the valve covered for more than 10 seconds at a time as this will begin to pull too much oxygen from your lungs. When finished, dip the tip into the sterile water and clear out the catheter. Throw out the catheter and the water.