INTRODUCTION Venous congestion is the main cause of failure in the distally based sural artery flap. Herein, we present our technique of phlebotomy to relieve flap congestion. Venous blood is intermittently drained via an exteriorized segment of the short saphenous vein until flap circulation normalizes. METHODS AND MATERIALS From 2000 to 2005, 34 distally based sural artery flaps were perfor...

Blood pressure (BP) and plasma indices of three major pressure control systems--plasma norepinephrine and epinephrine, plasma renin activity (PRA), and plasma arginine vasopressin--were measured simultaneously in 12 normal and 15 mildly essential hypertensive subjects before and after removal of 480 ml of blood by phlebotomy, to determine if there were differences in the compensatory response t...

OBJECTIVE It is standard practice to clean the skin using a non-alcohol-containing swab before forensic blood alcohol sampling, because of the belief that the use of an alcohol-containing swab will contaminate the sample. The present study aimed to determine whether cleaning the skin with 70% isopropyl alcohol swabs, before venepuncture, alters measured blood alcohol level (BAL). METHODS Volu...

AIM To assess the safety and efficacy of EMLA cream (eutectic mixture of local anaesthetics) used to induce surface anaesthesia for venepuncture in healthy preterm infants. METHODS Nineteen infants, median gestational age 31 weeks (range 26-33 weeks) were assessed in a randomised, double blind, placebo controlled, cross-over trial. Changes in physiological variables (heart rate, blood pressur...

The use of phlebotomy is relatively common for 'difficult-to-treat by antiviral therapies' hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients and for certain patients having chronic liver diseases with an iron overload of the liver. In the present study, we retrospectively analyzed patients treated with phlebotomy and their adverse events. We observed the occurrence and recurrence of hepatocellular carc...

CONTEXT Phlebotomy services are a common target for preanalytic improvements. Many new, quality engineering tools have recently been applied in clinical laboratories. However, data on relatively few projects have been published. This example describes a complete application of current, quality engineering tools to improve preanalytic phlebotomy services. OBJECTIVES To decrease the response ti...

BACKGROUND Thrombosis is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in polycythemia vera. Hypercoagulability is principally due to hyperviscosity of the whole blood, an exponential function of the hematocrit. PV is also associated with endothelial dysfunction that can predispose to arterial disease. Reduction of the red cell mass to a safe level by phlebotomy is the first principle of therapy in ...

BACKGROUND Metabolic syndrome (METS) is an increasingly prevalent but poorly understood clinical condition characterized by insulin resistance, glucose intolerance, dyslipidemia, hypertension, and obesity. Increased oxidative stress catalyzed by accumulation of iron in excess of physiologic requirements has been implicated in the pathogenesis of METS, but the relationships between cause and eff...