Venipuncture was less painful and more efficient than heel lance for blood testing in newborns
Question Is venipuncture of the dorsal side of the hand less painful and more efficient than heel lancing for blood testing in newborns?
Design
Randomised controlled trial.
Setting
The maternity ward at a hospital in Stockholm, Sweden.
Patients
120 consecutive healthy full term infants who required testing for phenylketonuria (PKU). Infants with any illness or abnormality were excluded. Follow up was 97.5% (51.5% girls).
Intervention
Infants were allocated to venipuncture (VP) with a 0.9 × 40 mm microlance needle (n=50), heel lance with a small lancet (SL) (n=50), or heel lance with a large lancet (LL) (n=20). Before the VP, the dorsum of the hand was gently squeezed to visualise the vein. The SL was placed on the skin, and when pressure was applied to the end of the device a 2 mm lancet penetrated the skin. The LL required hand power to penetrate the skin with a sharp triangular edge of 2.5 mm. All infants were fed 1–2 hours before testing and were sleeping lightly or resting quietly when testing began. …
