Butterfly Needles: Their Use-Cases and Advantages

A butterfly needle is a type of needle that is used to draw blood or give medications. They are called "butterfly" needles because of the plastic "wings" that are present on either side of the needle. You can easily find a butterfly needle at a laboratory equipment supplier. A butterfly needle is usually shorter than an IV catheter. Unlike an IV catheter, the butterfly needle gets left in the vein. Gauges measure butterfly needles. They are commonly available in the range of 18 to 27 gauge.

In this blog, we will explain the use cases and advantages of butterfly needles.

Applications of Butterfly Needles

A medical professional might choose to use a butterfly needle when they are drawing blood for the following purposes:

Venipuncture

A venipuncture is when a medical professional accesses a vein to draw blood. Butterfly needles are usually used on people who might be challenging to perform venipuncture on, like older adults, infants, and children.

Butterfly needles are also used when a person is giving blood, as the needle can easily connect to another tube to collect blood. You would usually find butterfly needles with a blood collection tube supplier.

IV Hydration

A medical professional might use a butterfly needle to access a vein for IV hydration. As the butterfly needle is hollow, it allows the IV fluids to be infused.

Medication

Doctors also use Butterfly needles to give IV medications. Receiving medication through a vein is very helpful when a person is unable to take it by mouth or when the medications are required to work quickly.

Advantages of Using Butterfly Needles

• Using butterfly needles reduces the rate of blood breaking down by half.
• Butterfly needles are also found to be better for those with bleeding disorders like hemophilia and von Willebrand disease.
• Using a butterfly needle after an IV stick or blood draw reduces the likelihood of a person experiencing profuse bleeding.

Conclusion

As you can see, a butterfly needle can make the blood drawing process easier if a patient has veins that are tough to access or has a condition that may cause them to bleed more than usual. If you need to buy butterfly needles, it is advisable to purchase them from a trusted and well-reputed blood collection needle supplier. This is because if they are made from a cheap material or are not manufactured properly, they may severely jeopardize the patient's health.