Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

Backbreaker - Outpatient Surgery Magazine - April 2019

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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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

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