Mbah Henry A
Senior Technical Advisor Lab, FHI-360, Nigeria.
Afr J Lab Med. 2014 Aug 18;3(1):132. doi: 10.4102/ajlm.v3i1.132. eCollection 2014.
Phlebotomy, the act of drawing blood through venepuncture, is one of the most common medical procedures in healthcare, as well as being a basis for diagnosis and treatment. A review of the available research has highlighted the dearth of information on the phlebotomy practice in Africa. Several studies elsewhere have shown that the pre-analytical phase (patient preparation, specimen collection and identification, transportation, preparation for analysis and storage) is the most error-prone process in laboratory medicine. The validity of any laboratory test result hinges on specimen quality; thus, as the push for laboratory quality improvement in Africa gathers momentum, the practice of phlebotomy should be subjected to critical appraisal. This article offers several suggestions for the improvement of phlebotomy in Africa.
静脉穿刺采血，即通过静脉穿刺抽取血液的操作，是医疗保健中最常见的医疗程序之一，也是诊断和治疗的基础。对现有研究的回顾凸显了非洲静脉穿刺采血实践方面信息的匮乏。其他地方的多项研究表明，分析前阶段（患者准备、标本采集与识别、运输、分析前准备和储存）是检验医学中最容易出错的环节。任何实验室检测结果的有效性都取决于标本质量；因此，随着非洲提高实验室质量的努力势头渐强，静脉穿刺采血实践应受到严格评估。本文为改善非洲的静脉穿刺采血提出了若干建议。
