[Comparative evaluation of 3 types of syringes routinely used for arterial gas analysis]

This prospective study evaluates the practical utility of a special plastic syringe for collecting arterial blood samples for gasometry, comparing it to a glass syringe and a conventional plastic one, in 120 patients who came to our hospital for arterial blood analysis for a variety of reasons. The patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups according to type of syringe assigned. Technicians with experience in the technique prepared the syringes and collected the arterial blood samples after providing local anesthesia. The results showed that the special plastic syringe took less time (p < 0.05) to prepare than did the glass or conventional plastic ones. The differences were quite small, however, in absolute terms, with the special syringe requiring 17 seconds less than the glass syringe and 6 seconds less than the plastic one; the practical importance is therefore slight. No other advantages of the special syringe were observed. No patient required more than one puncture to obtain a valid arterial blood sample, the extraction times (time between arterial puncture until end of process) were similar in the three groups of patients, and the presence of post-puncture hematoma was rare in all groups. There were no differences in level of pain reported (on an analog scale) and the subjective quality of the radial pulse wave was good and similar in all three groups. In conclusion, these results show that use of the special syringe offers no important practical advantages for experienced technicians that would justify the higher price. In fact, as the conventional plastic syringes are cheaper, disposable and similarly effective in expert hands, our results suggest that their routine use for collecting arterial blood gas samples can help improve the cost-benefit ratio for a common procedure in pulmonary function units.