Boston Globe:
Mapping may shorten hunt for veins
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Life Science: Medical Devices
By Diedtra Henderson, Globe Staff
Excerpts from the article.
Healthcare workers who handle patients with hard-to-find veins are getting a little help from a new device that offers something like X-ray vision to make precise needle sticks.
"What patient comes to the hospital that doesn't have either blood drawn or an IV?" said Dr. Richard A . Baum, director of interventional radiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "Usually, it's not a problem. But when it is a problem, it's a big problem."
Doctors and nurses make heavy use of the veins of people with chronic diseases. They poke a needle into a vein to draw blood, insert intravenous lines, inject tracer dyes for imaging work, and to administer chemotherapy.
"Their veins become scarred and small; it's very difficult to get venous access in these patients," said Baum, who is on the medical advisory board of medical device maker Diomed Inc.
As a result, doctors and nurses are forced to conduct often painful hunts for usable veins. Andover-based Diomed hopes that the VeinViewer Imaging System it is marketing will put an end to patients feeling like human pincushions.
…But at Brigham and Women's Vein Care Center, where Baum is medical director, staff members use the VeinViewer to treat people with varicose veins and spider veins. The outpatient center is one of 30 vein care centers using the VeinViewer, which became commercially available in late May.
Diomed hopes to sell 4,000 to 5,000 of the devices to… vein care centers over the next five years, said John Welch, a Diomed spokesman.
The VeinViewer stands about 5 feet tall, with a computer at its base, a light panel up above, and wheels for portability. When turned on, it emits light in the near-infrared range of the spectrum that highlights hemoglobin in veins. In addition to projecting a 3- by 5-inch road map of veins onto the skin, it shows blood pulsing through veins.
That's a big deal when treating spider veins. The wispy red, blue, and purple spider veins that people see with the unaided eye are fed by larger blue veins that lurk below the skin.
Vein lights, the standard tool used by doctors treating spider veins, are unable to detect veins deep below the skin. The VeinViewer does, said a podiatrist who specializes in vein treatment who has no financial connection to Diomed.
"I think it's a great device," said Dr. Jodi Schoenhaus, a member of the American Podiatric Medical Association who practices in Boca Raton, Fla.
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