Haemolyzed samples: responsibility of short catheters.

The haemolysis of blood samples is a source of error in the electrolytic and enzymatic determination in clinical biochemistry. This circumstance seems dependent on the material used for the venepuncture. In this study we compared three kinds of material in 350 patients who were sampled in the emergency department. This randomized study compared the haemolysis of blood samples collected with stainless steel needles and short catheters, either Teflon FEP (Cathlon Critikon) or polyurethane Vialon (Insyte Becton-Dickinson). Quantification of hemolysis was performed by assay of the optical density of plasma haemoglobin. Results were analysed, after verification of the randomization, by one-way analysis of variance by ranks. This study demonstrated a highly significant relation between occurrence of haemolysis and the sampling material, used according to its technical obligations. Haemolysis occurred frequently when short catheters were used in 42% and 55% of cases with the Teflon and Vialon catheters, respectively. Haemolysis was much less frequent with stainless steel needles (12%). This difference was even more marked for haemoglobin levels above 1.5 milligrams of plasma, where the incidence was 4.2%, 9% and 30%, respectively, for the stainless steel needles, the Teflon catheter and the Vialon catheter. This study induced our emergency department to take more blood samples with a needle, even if an infusion was to be given subsequently, or to take them using a Teflon catheter.