Vein Viewer – Visualizing Veins in Real Time

Nobody enjoys having their veins poked and prodded including the health care team who are sticking us with the needles so the good people at Christie created the Vein Viewer. It’s a device that illuminates the vein underneath the skin so that the clinician taking a person’s blood or injecting needles has an x-ray type of view of what’s going on. This makes the whole ordeal better for patient and clinician.

Vein Viewer uses near infrared light to see through the skin up to a range of 10mm to 15mm deep. The light absorbs into the blood hemoglobin and the surrounding tissue reflects it. This information is then used to create a digital HD image to see the patient’s vasculature. The Vein Viewer device can operate in inverse mode and it can provide fine details.

[Image Source: YouTube, Screenshot]

The benefits of this breakthrough in vein detection and visualization apply to pre, and post vein access as well as during access.
Once the veins are visualized an appropriate injection site can be determined based on the patient’s own vasculature. This can help the care-giver to avoid any potentially problematic structures and it can be used to select the appropriate needle gauge based on the patient’s vein size. The best part of Vein Viewer technology is that it provides live visual feedback so that flow both in or out of the veins can be confirmed and monitored before any problems arise.

[Image Source: Christie Med]

During access benefits include being able to navigate a catheter around difficult curves, the ability to see a rolling vein and the ability to confirm proper IV flow.
Post access the Vein Viewer can easily detect a hematoma and can provide confirmation of peripheral IV situation which will help to avoid medically preventable central lines like PICC or CVC.

[Image Source: YouTube, Screenshot]

Both hospitals and non-hospital clinics, aesthetics, and outpatient centers can use and will benefit from the Vein Viewer device as well as emergency medical services who can use this device right at the accident or emergency site.