By Stephanie Flemmons, Staff Writer

While going to the hospital and getting poked by a needle is unavoidable and unbearable at times, administrators at the Presbyterian Hospital of Plano decided it was time to ease the pain.

Last week, Presbyterian Hospital became the first facility in the D/FW area to purchase the VeinViewer by Luminetx, which uses a combination of near-infrared light, a digital video camera, an image processing unit and a digital projector to detect the location of vessels and avoid potential multiple misses.

Brian Skrainka, M.D. said the new technology is geared toward pediatrics because children’s vessels are small and sometimes difficult to locate. He said the most fat per body surface are on 8-9 month olds.

“Our expanding pediatric department is going ‘ouchless’ to minimize painful experiences,” said Brian Skrainka, M.D. “Kids think it’s pretty cool.”

Skrainka said he likes to glorify the green light that shines down on the children’s arm, by telling the child that if their arm turns green, that means they are an alien. He also ensures that it doesn’t hurt.

Kevin Attocknie, had to take his 10-year-old son, Dalton, to Presbyterian Hospital last week after his appendix ruptured. He said Dalton has been on an I.V. since he’s been there and had an opportunity to be one of the first patients to wreak the benefits of the new equipment. “I like the fact they were able to scan the area and not poke him many times,” Attacknie said. “They were able to go directly toward the vein. It was real simple and fast.”

He said after the doctor confirmed his son wasn’t an alien, he was all smiles.

“Dalton thought it was cool because of the light,” Attocknie said. “It took his focus off of the I.V.”

Skrainka said he’d like to see a portable version of the vein viewer in the back of every ambulance.

He said even though the VeinViewer is in the pediatric unit, it can be used for all patients.

“It can be used for all ages, Oncology patients, people donating blood and elderly patients,” he said.

He said it really helps out the Emergency Department because they don’t see children as frequent.

“They borrowed the equipment and didn’t want to give it back,” Skrainka said. “I told them they had to put it on their Christmas wish list.”

He said the equipment cost the hospital $25,000.

“Presbyterian Hospital was very generous and forth coming by buying this piece of equipment.”

Sarah Little, Luminetx Corporation’s associate vice president of marketing, said the product launched in October of last year and went from prototype to production in one year.

She said TIME Magazine awarded the company the 2004 Most Innovated Medical Invention of the Year.

“Healthcare providers rely on seeing and feeling,” Little said. “There are many factors that cause that to be a challenge, so we are (using) a tool to improve access.”


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