Our laboratory advises us to the contrary. It is felt that using a needle
to 'inject' the rubber stopper represents a safety risk as one might
inadvertently inject one's own finger. I have been advised to use the
vacutainer system where possible and, if using a syringe, to remove the
vacutainer cap and squirt blood in without a needle, up to the line.
I have to say that I have found haemolysis to be a very rare occurrence when
using the vacutainer system, from a freshly placed or old canula, so long as
one discards the first container drawn.
On a related note, I have found when using the needle-less Vygon system that
one must usually draw a small syringe-full of blood (which I then discard),
prior to being able to withdraw blood using the vacutainers. I presume this
has something to do with the sealing system and needing a certain amount of
vacuum to overcome it.
Max Hills,
Clinical Fellow in Emergency Medicine
(Currently in Orthopaedics!)
-----Original Message-----
From: Accident and Emergency Academic List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Martyn Hodson
Sent: 27 January 2004 01:11
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Haemolysed blood specimens
snip.
our labs types say if you must take blood with a syringe and needle, try
and use a green needle and then let the vacutainers 'suckup' the correct
amount fro mthe syringe , i.e. don't 'inject' into the bottle or pop the
'cap 'off and squirt some blood in
snip.
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