Compared to
other A&E departments, RLI has slightly lower or comparable rates of
haemolysis. For instance, when looking at the 598 questionnaire based study at the John
Hopkins Hospital
1 ,
Baltimore; 32% of their samples had some degree of haemolysis (compared to 4%
shown here); the study also showed that
blood drawn through IV catheters resulted in significantly more haemolysis than
using the needle technique
(p<.001). The survey also demonstrated
that the predominant method of drawing blood was by IV catheters (69%) which was
similar to our rate here(72%). The study also showed that
IV catheter haemolysis was higher when a vacutainer was used versus a syringe (
22% versus 9%); this was significant at p=0.02
1. Grant M. The effect
of blood drawing techniques and equipment on the haemolysis of ed
laboratory samples. J Emerg Nurs 2003;29:116-21.