Thinking about buying an Accuvein 300...responses?

[XY_RN]

I operate two Infectious Diseases offices running and working in the infusion suites. I am considering purchasing this product Accuvein AV300 (www.accuvein.com) for my own personal use. Before I do so I would like some input from "real people" not sales people.

Any information, opinions,comments,complaints will be very much appreciated. Also, if anyone has info on pricing (nothing listed on website).

Thanks everyone for your assistance.

:redbeathe~Matthew

[Asystole RN]

Just very excited from using this vein finder as we get a lot of older people in AZ with brown (tan or Hispanic to very dark skin) and its very hard to find viable veins the first time.

Where did you get a chance to use one of Near Infrared's vein camera?

We got an early proto-type to try and they are not even for sale yet...

Near infrared has been around for many years and has been produced by many companies in many different forms. They all have the same exact issues, only about 0.5cm in depth, rely upon infrared/near infrared radiation, and only represent a 2D picture of the vessel. There is very little practical difference between near infrared and shining a bright flashlight through the skin.

Until these devices reach a price in the several hundred dollar range they are simply outclassed by even the most rudimentary of ultrasound machines. US allows you to assess the vessel, nerves, adipose, muscle, and bone tissue up to several cm below the skin with a lateral and longitudinal view.

Dollar for dollar, near infrared imagers are simply not practical. Its like selling a bicycle for the same cost of a car.

[Paramedic in ED]

I work in a moderately busy hospital and am called throughout the hospital to handle difficult IV starts. We have both US and the vein finder systems. There is no comparison. Ultrasound far surpasses the infrared vein finder systems (except in infants and neonates, then they are similar). While the IR systems show surface veins, the US systems allow excellent viewing of veins as deep as 2 cm. It also allows differentiation between vein and artery. It will take a little practice to become comfortable with the US systems but well worth the effort.

[tcquilter0707]

We bought this vein finder for our pediatric unit. There was some resistance from some nurses in using it because they said it didn't work, but when I found out they were using it incorrectly. it did win some of them over. The issue we had with it was no one wanted to use it on the stand, and it was getting knocked off the treatment table onto the floor. The first time it failed, our engineering department was able to fix the part that broke loose inside from falling onto the floor. The second time. it was not repairable. It worked wonderfully and really saved doing numerous sticks on children, but it was not very durable for use in our setting. For the cost, I would look at something a little less delicate! Our lab techs also liked it when we brought it into a room for a venous draw on an infant or small child. Our hospital will not pay for a replacement due to the cost of the Accu-vein.

[floydnightingale]

We bought three of these for our ED. Save your money. First off, if a patient's veins are so bad that you need this device it will likely only confirm that they have lousy veins. It's also a very poor design mechanically. The ones we bought didn't last more than a few months and have been replaced.

In use, it will show a low battery and go out but won't work off of AC wall power if plugged in, and the articulated arm will not stay in place: there is nothing to prevent gravity from pulling it down. Just an embarrassingly bad design. I wonder just what they are teaching in engineering schools these days. This should be pretty simple. All in all, it's a worthless machine.