Butterfly needle is easily used by nurses when the need of blood transfusion and blood collecting during a venipuncture or intravenous feeding , the name of the needle comes from its wings which are flexible and attached to both sides of the needle corners , it can be folded to be used as a grip as they are flexible enough to be hold between the nurse’s fingers making the process of inserting the needle into the blood vein easy and safe .
Drawing blood is a reality of daily life. Nearly everyone experience it at some point. Worrying of the discomfort and several punctures cause many people to flinch at the thought. Knowing the kinds of needles used in phlebotomy can help allay these concerns.
Butterfly Needle Gauges
The butterfly needle comes in different types and sizes , available sizes are 21, 23 and 25 gauge ,the number here is inversely proportional to the diameter as by increasing the number the butterfly needle gets thinner.
The function of the butterfly needle is to draw blood samples from wrist, hand and foot , its benefits really appear when the veins are too deep or when uncooperative patients keep moving or is anxious during blood drawn , another feature of the butterfly needle that the tube is not attached directly to the collection tube, so the patient can move with some degree of ease, without moving the collecting jar or sample out of place.
Butterfly Needle Advantages and Disadvantages
The butterfly needle is nearly similar to any other needle sets in their functions and actions but differs from them with slight variations and differ with its advantages as :
1) It is generally less painful Because the butterfly needle is a smaller needle gauge (23 gauge is a standard )
2) Using a butterfly infusion set is less likely to collapse the patient’s vein, because of the smaller needle gauge and length of attached tubing, which dissipates the strength of the vacuum when using the evacuated system.
3) This system is the best choice when the patient’s veins are small, as is often the case with children and elderly.
4) It enables to obtain a blood sample from infants with out having to use the heel stick method which is more difficult giving a hard time for them.
5) Making drawing blood from a combative patient a much more safe procedure and without any harmful risks.
6) Ability to obtain the specimen from the back of the patient hand with a lower risk of nerve damage prevalent when using a straight needle in the back of the patients hand.
6) Ability to obtain the specimen from the back of the patient hand with a lower risk of nerve damage prevalent when using a straight needle in the back of the patients hand.
7) For incredibly difficult blood draws the phlebotomist is able to get an immediate flash to let them know that they are in the vein.
But the drawbacks and disadvantages of this method include :
1) The risk of hemolysis because of the small gauge of the needle which causes the blood cell to be damaged and platelets clumping .
2) It is difficult to collect large quantities of blood using this method .
3) It takes longer to fill the syringe or evacuated tubes when using butterfly infusion sets.
4) the push button butterflies are very sensitive and the safety may release mid-draw causing a need for a second blood draw.
5) The butterfly needle with the tube system requires to be in the arm for a longer time because of the slow blood flow, also it requires the tourniquet to stay on longer increasing the likeliness of abnormal results for some tests.
6) If many tubes are required a second blood draw may be required because of the vacuum from the tubes because of the too much drawing from the vein.
7) Vein “rolling” and “collapsing” is experienced by phlebotomist during blood drawing when using the butterfly needle.
8) The cost of the butterfly infusion set is triple (3x) the cost of the straight needle , which is quite expensive.
