Taking pain out of the prick of the needle

Patients no longer need put off blood tests for fear of painful needle prick. Butterfly needles are here, making blood collection a pain-free exercise.

The high-end technology needles, unveiled by an NCR-based pathology diagnostic centre, are a relatively pain-free tool for collecting blood from patients - especially those who are hypersensitive to pain, have syringe phobia, children, newborn babies, or have very fragile or small veins.

Elaborating, Dr B.R. Das of the Delhi-based SRL Diagnostics Limited pointed out that accessing the vein is not always easy in certain cases. Newborn babies and children have very thin and superficial veins; older or geriatric patients often have with tremors, some combative patients are aggressive), and for some patients it may be necessary to draw blood from the back of the hand.

When the butterfly needle is inserted into the vein, a 'flash' can be seen. The 'flash' is a small amount of blood that flows into the hub connected to the needle when the needle enters a vein. This gives the lab technician an assurance he is "in" the vein. The butterfly needle is typically held by folding the 'wings' and then placed into the vein generally at a shallow angle.

Normally, the technician has used what is called a "vacutainer" where the blood is drawn through a needle into a tube which has vacuum with the appropriate material to prevent the blood from clotting in certain cases.

The butterfly needles serve another purpose of safeguarding the lab techni8cians from accidental needle stick injuries that are a crisis in the healthcare systems around the globe. Therefore, safer blood drawing devices like butterfly needles help mitigate the dangers of needle stick injuries during routine blood draws.