A P R I L 2 0 1 9 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y. N E T • 1 3 1
Sights and ultra-
sounds
Some veins aren't visi-
ble to the naked eye.
Instead of going in
blind with your stick,
you can use infrared
or ultrasound to
locate veins. Infrared
vein finders expose
superficial veins near-
est to the surface. But
some people with big-
ger arms might not
have any superficial veins that are visible. With ultrasound, you can
find a vein that is deep to the skin, ones that aren't visible to the
naked eye or even a vein finder. Ultrasound is especially helpful
when you're going into an upper arm or anywhere you have more
soft tissue between the surface of the skin and where the vein is
located, says Dr. Gravenstein.
Target practice
Once you've identified the target vein — either visually or with a
vein finder — you want to make the target as big as possible. Sharply
tapping the vein with your fingers temporarily stuns the blood vessel
nerves, which makes the muscles in the vein wall unable to receive a
nerve signal to contract. The larger your target, the better chance you
have of hitting it on the first stick with less pain to the patient, says
Dr. Gravenstein.
4
3
• DEEP DIVE Chris Lippert, RN, CAPA, OR director at Avera Queen of Peace Hospital
in Mitchell, S.D., locates a deep vein on his patient by using an ultrasound machine.
Nathan
Johnson,
Avera
Health