Femoral phlebotomy: the vacuum tube method is preferable over needle syringe

A syringe needle (SN) is commonly used to obtain blood specimens from the femoral vein. The vacuum tube (VT) method avoids the needle stick potential of the SN technique during transfer of blood from the syringe to the collection tubes. We compared the perceived safety, patient pain, and efficacy of SN and VT for femoral phlebotomy in a prospective trial. Of 64 patients entered, 38 (59%) had the VT technique and 26 (41%) had the SN technique. There was no significant difference in the success rate between VT and SN (100% vs. 95%, respectively). The VT method was somewhat faster than the SN method (104 +/- 109 vs. 181 +/- 149 s, respectively, p = 0.06). Complications were infrequent and not different between the groups. The mean patient pain score +/- SD on a 10-cm visual analog scale for the VT and SN techniques were 2.6 +/- 2.2 and 3.7 +/- 2.7, respectively (p < 0.001). Physicians subjectively rated the safety of the procedure higher for the VT method than for the SN method. Medical personnel should consider use of the VT method instead of the traditional SN technique for femoral phlebotomy.