Credit: Christie Medical Holdings

For a patient who is always jittery about holding out an arm for a needle, VeinViewer is a product that projects the image of veins on the person's arm, to help medical workers know where to put the needle.

VeinViewer uses near-infrared light to create a digital image of patient vasculature in realtime. The formal explanation of the product has been as a vascular access imaging device that assists clinicians in finding the optimal venipuncture site, avoiding potential stick complications.

VeinViewer is from the Memphis-based company, Christie Medical Holdings. The company said VeinViewer has been proven to increase first-stick success by up to 100 percent and decrease medically unnecessary PICC lines by greater than 30 percent.

Collecting blood from a vein is not only a procedure that makes some patients nervous; it can be a challenging process for some medical professionals as well, especially if the patient's veins are difficult to see.

This is where the product aims to help. Using near-infrared light, the product can create a digital image of vasculature. Switching to inverse mode the product can locate elements that could affect the clinician's choice of access sites, such as bifurcations or valves.

The latest from Christie Medical Holdings is announcement of its VeinViewer Vision2, which is the most advanced VeinViewer so far. Capabilities allow a head-to-toe patient assessment, said the company, without requiring the user to reposition the unit's base.

Another advantage is in its customization range. Vision2 includes the most imaging options of any VeinViewer model:"a clinician can: change the color of the projected image, invert or re-size the image, enhance the image using the fine detail mode, increase or decrease the image brightness or take and store a PNG file of the image. The advantage of all this customization is that the clinician can choose which mode provides the best image for her, and which mode provides the best image of her patient's vasculature."

The company highlights the point that its product's benefit in locating veins is only the first step to making it useful; the company said, "VeinViewer is the only vein finder of its kind that can positively impact the entire pre-, during and post-access procedure."

Clinicians can see blood patterns up to 15 mm deep and clinically relevant veins up to 10 mm. They can see peripheral veins, bifurcations and valves and assess in real time the refill/flushing of veins. The company said that the total vascular access procedure is improved, not just the stick.

The Vision2 operates via AC power or FastSwap Lithium Ion Battery. Each FastSwap Battery has a continuous runtime of about two hours.

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