How do you start an IV on difficult veins?

How do you start an IV on difficult veins?

HOW TO START AN I.V. CATHETER ON A PATIENT WITH DIFFICULT VEINS

1. Lie the patient down, supine and horizontal.
2. Apply a standard rubber tourniquet to the upper arm.
3. Activate the blood pressure cuff in “Stat” mode, or repeatedly inflate the cuff in “Manual” mode.
4. Examine the arm carefully for the best vein.

What is the best vein to start an IV?

The preferred sites for IV cannulation

1. Hand. Dorsal arch veins.
2. Wrist. Volar aspect.
3. Cubital fossa. Median antecubital, cephalic and basilic veins.
4. Foot. Dorsal arch.
5. Scalp. Scalp veins should only be used once other alternatives are exhausted.

What to do if you can’t find a vein to draw blood?

If the venipuncture proves difficult because of a hard-to-find vein, pre-warming the antecubital area or rotating the wrist might help distend the vein and make it easier to find. If dehydration might be the cause, sometimes phlebotomists can ask the patient to drink water and return later to do the draw.

How do you start an IV every time?

Now that vein selection is complete, the following tips and tricks for starting an IV are on how to make the vein more visible.

1. Gravity is your friend.
2. Use warm compress.
3. Do not slap the vein.
4. Flick or tap the vein.
5. Feel the vein.
6. Fist clenching.
7. Use the multiple-tourniquet technique.
8. Vein dilation using nitroglycerine.

What happens if you put an IV in an artery?

Complications of entering the artery with a large cannula intended for venous cannulation can result in complications such as temporary occlusion, pseudoaneurysm and haematoma formation. [6] Unrecognized arterial injection of anaesthetic drugs can cause tissue ischaemia and necrosis.

How do you know if a needle is in your vein?

(See illustration on following page.) Once you think you’re in a vein, pull the plunger back to see if blood comes into the syringe. If so, and the blood is dark red and slow moving, you know that you’ve hit a vein.

Where should you not put an IV?

“Avoid inserting the IV catheter close to a flexible joint where it may bend. A bent or kinked catheter can be a source of complications. The veins in the antecubital are often easy accessible and also big, but note that this is an often bent joint with high risk to kink the catheter,” Pernilla says.

What to do when you cant find a vein?

Tips and Tricks for Accessing Problem Veins

1. Get warm. When the body is warm, blood flow increases, dilating the veins and making them easier to find and stick.
2. Use gravity. Increase blood flow to your arm and hand by letting gravity do the work.
3. Hydrate. When the body is properly hydrated, veins become more dilated.
4. Relax.

Why is it hard-to-find a vein in my arm?

As a result of normal physiological variation, some individuals may have small, thin, or hard-to-find veins, making it a challenge for even an experienced medical lab technician to draw blood. This can sometimes be a result of dehydration, which causes the body to constrict its blood vessels.