On 6 West this morning, our supervisor handed me a box of the new low‑pressure vac tubes to try on a 92‑year‑old with whispery veins — 23G butterfly, tourniquet off fast, vein held and the hemolysis index came back clean. It felt like a bridge between microtubes and standard vacutainers, and the geriatrics nurses immediately asked to keep them. Who else has seen this, and are you getting fewer redraws or any analyzer flags?
Same here — tried the low‑pressure tubes on a 90‑something with a 23G butterfly and ditching the tourniquet as soon as I saw flash kept the vein from collapsing; hemolysis index was cleaner than our regular vacs. Tiny tip: keep the tube below the site and let it fill slow without twisting the holder — ugh, any tug seems to stall flow; anyone else notice that?
I’ve had better success by adding a short extension to the butterfly so I can click the gentle‑draw tube on and off without torquing the hub, which makes those wispy veins way less likely to fold on me.
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