Vein finders

[lkhrn]

Do these work? Need help finding deep veins and on dark skin at bedside.

[KatieMI, BSN, MSN, RN]

In my population (many dark-skinned, severely obese or edematous patients) Illumivein works good enough as far as locating veins, and by applying pressure on them you can estimate caliber and depth to have, that is to say, still "blind" but better-guessed "blind stick". With some experience, it works in 75% or so cases but it is almost always temporary step before PICC or central line is inserted. We do not expect these IVs to last longer than 24 hours max. If I need something that will have to work longer and PICC is not an option, I would rather prefer ultrasound for deeper and larger one.