The Washington Post:
Infrared Map Ends Quest for Hidden Veins
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
By Ranit Mishori
When people who draw blood talk about a "hard stick," they mean a patient whose veins are hard to see or feel, making it difficult to know where to insert the needle. The device pictured above -- called the Vein Viewer -- is designed to make hard sticks easier. Infrared technology maps veins' location, then projects the map onto the skin surface so a nurse, technician or phlebotomist knows exactly where to stick the needle.
The system, developed by Memphis-based Luminetx, is in daily use at the Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis. There, it has reduced the need to insert "central lines" -- tubes that are put into major blood vessels when the small ones can't be found – thus "lowering risk of complications and providing cost savings," according to Clinton Welch, nurse manager in the center's vascular access department.
An estimated one billion venipunctures -- insertions of a needle or catheter into a vein --are performed every year in the United States; as many as 14 "sticks" are needed each time. "Ask any patient with difficult veins, and they'll tell you any device that makes blood collection easier on them is worth the price," says Dennis Ernst, director of the Center for Phlebotomy Education in Ramsey, Ind.
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