Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital recently purchased a state-of-the-art “vein viewing system” to help find veins in even the smallest patients, allowing significantly improved stick accuracy for the placement of IV lines.

Using near infrared light and other advanced technologies, the VeinViewer ® by Luminetx is able to locate veins underneath the skin in a child’s hand or other parts of the body and project real-time images of their location onto the surface of the skin. Using the projected image as a guide, caregivers are more accurately able to find the best veins to stick, causing less pain and trauma for pediatric and newborn patients.

“The Vein Viewer allows us to perform lifesaving therapies much faster, with less trial and error and less discomfort to our patients,” says Dr. Robert Patterson, a pediatric intensivist with Nemours Children’s Clinic and the medical director of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital. “By making it easier to see peripheral veins that might have otherwise been hidden, it decreases the chance of us having to place central line into a child’s or baby’s artery, which has a much higher rate of complications such as bleeding and infection.”

How It Works

Using the adjustable head on the VeinViewer ®, the child’s caregiver positions over the part of the patient's anatomy where he or she is looking for a vein. The device then utilizes the following technology to create an image of the child’s veins.

1. Infrared light source - The light source emits a harmless, near-infrared light reflected back to the surface from the tissue surrounding the vein, while no light is reflected back from the blood inside the vessel.
2. Digital video camera - The digital video camera captures the near-infrared light reflected back from the patient.
3. Image processing unit - The microprocessor adds contrast and projects this image back on the skin in their actual location.
4. Digital image projector - Using Texas Instruments Digital Light Processing™ technology, the projector displays these real-time images of the veins onto the surface of the skin.

Because the VeinViewer is completely portable, it is able to be used on all patients at Children’s hospital – from the sickest, most premature babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit on the second floor up to the most critically injured and ill babies and children in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit on the third floor.

For more information on services at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital, please call (850) 416-1600 or visit www.sacred-heart.org.

About Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital
Since 1969, Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital has provided quality, compassionate care to children across the Gulf Coast, regardless of their ability to pay. Located in Pensacola, Fla., our state-of-the-art, 119-bed hospital is the only dedicated children’s hospital in Northwest Florida.

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