VeinViewer gives health care workers "X-Ray vision" into skin of patients

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The device, known as the VeinViewer, was invented by Tennessee-based company Luminetx Technology Corp., and costs about $20,000. It uses a pulse of near-infrared light to illuminate the hemoglobin in veins, making them visible under the skin, which allows for more precise use of a needle when health care workers are administering medication or drawing blood.

Veins are common targets in everyday medicine, especially when treating people with chronic diseases. The patients often sustain needle pricks when health care workers need to draw blood, insert intravenous lines, inject tracer dyes, and administer chemotherapy.

"What patient comes to the hospital that doesn't have either blood drawn or an IV?" said Dr. Richard A. Baum, director of interventional radiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "Usually, it's not a problem. But when it is a problem, it's a big problem."

When veins are hard to pinpoint, health care workers are often forced to go hunting for usable veins, which can cause the patient great pain and discomfort. Medical device maker Diomed Inc., the company marketing the VeinViewer, hopes their new instrument will take care of this problem.

Baum, who sits on the medical advisory board of Diomed, said the facility also uses the VeinViewer to treat varicose veins and spider veins. Spider veins are particularly difficult to treat, because the red, blue and purple veins that are visible to the naked eye are actually fed by larger blue veins that are hidden deeper in the skin. Doctors traditionally use vein lights to treat spider veins, but those lights are unable to penetrate deep beneath the skin.

"I think it's a great device," said Dr. Jodi Schoenhaus, a member of the American Podiatric Medical Association who practices in Boca Raton, Fla., and has no ties to Diomed. While Schoenhaus said she thinks the device is useful, she has not bought one yet because she feels it is too big and cumbersome.

Diomed spokesperson John Welch said that, over the next five years, the company hopes to sell 4,000 to 5,000 of the units to U.S. hospitals and vein care centers.

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