Use of transillumination technique is not limited to venous cannulation only!

I read the recent article by Payal et al(1) with great interest. The authors described the use of transillumination by using a cold light source to facilitate venous cannulation in paediatric patients. I applaud the authors for revisiting this technique. However, I would like to mention a few more uses for this technique. The authors only discussed the usefulness of transillumination for venous cannulation;(1) however, this technique is also useful for percutaneous arterial cannulation(2) and the withdrawal of arterial blood for sampling.(3) In paediatric patients, transillumination is also useful for umbilical catheterisation.(4) The authors discussed the use of a torch and fibrescope as the light source for umbilical catheterisation,(1) but specialised devices like Veinlite (TransLite, Sugar Land, TX, USA) are available specifically for this purpose.(5) Lastly, the transillumination technique has been successfully used for mapping prior to ambulatory phlebectomy.(6)