Comparison of two infant lancet devices on ease of use and post lance bleeding times

BackgroundThere is a need to choose neonatal heel lance phlebotomy devices with the least potential for pain and post-phlebotomy complications. The purpose of this study was to evaluate two lancet devices (BD's Quikheel and Hawaii Medical's NeatNick) in terms of ease of use and frequency of infant bleeding longer than 5 min.Materials and methodsBetween April 5 and July 15, 2010, phlebotomy staff alternated between using each lancet device on 1243 full term infants at three tertiary care hospitals in Calgary, Alberta.ResultsMore NeatNick than Quikheel subjects bled longer than 5 min post phlebotomy (p < 0.0001). Of eight variables concerning ease of use of the device, seven favoured the Quikheel device and the eighth was not statistically different.ConclusionsThe Quikheel lancet was preferred over the NeatNick lancet for blood collection in terms of ease of use by phlebotomists and fewer excess bleeding times in newborns.