Definition And Types Of Phlebotomy

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Definition And Types Of Phlebotomy

Phlebotomy is the process of obtaining a sample of venous or arterial blood from patients from a puncture site or an incision for analyzing and testing depending on the diagnosis or prognosis. Phlebotomy can be a part of patient's therapeutic regimen to treat certain diseases.

Phlebotomy can be further classified as following depending upon whether blood sample is drawn from vein, artery or a cannulated vessel. Phlebotomy: venous blood sample, (also known as phlebotomy, venesection, venipuncture or venepuncture, and blood draw) is the process of obtaining a sample of venous blood from an uncannulated vein. Phlebotomy: arterial blood sample is defined as obtaining a blood sample from an uncannulated artery to assess oxygen and carbon dioxide levels and acid-base balance.

Phlebotomy: cannulated vessel is a nursing intervention defined as aspirating a blood sample through an indwelling vascular catheter for laboratory tests Phlebotomy: blood unit acquisition, is a nursing intervention from the Nursing Interventions Classification defined as procuring blood and blood products from donors.

Goal of phlebotomy Therapeutic treatment Blood diseases like Polycythemia vera, which is a condition which increases red blood cell volume and results in higher hematocrit, can be treated using phlebotomy. Phlebotomy has been used traditionally to treat patients with Hematochromatosis which is the disease caused by very high iron levels in the body which is needed to remove to prevent toxicity. Sometimes, pulmonary edema patients have to undergo phlebotomy to reduce the total blood volume.

Phlebotomy as pharmacologic intervention Pharmacological drugs like morphine are used to decrease the liquid accumulated in lungs by accumulating blood in capacitance vessels in critical care.

Diagnosis of a disease Laboratory tests on blood are done for diagnostic determination of diseases and Phlebotomy is used as the procedure for collecting blood from donors in blood banks. Physicians make use of laboratory tests to get information about the health and condition of the patients. Blood samples are tested for biochemical, bacteriological and immunological parameters in clinical laboratories.

The two categories of blood tests are: screening or diagnostic. Blood tests can be used for pre-screening tool for suspected presence of a disease with very little evidence. Diagnostic testing is done to confirm the presence of a specific disease by laboratory testing.

Therapeutic drug monitoring Pharmacologic drug levels in the blood of a patient are monitored at specific time intervals to evaluate the efficacy of the drug, by a division of clinical chemistry called therapeutic drug monitoring. The difference between the toxicity levels/side effect levels and efficacy level of the drug being monitored generally lies in very close range.

About the Author

Written by Phlebotomy Training specialist Dr Shahbaz A. Cheema, Course Director for Maxis Healthcare who run NHS Accredited Phlebotomy Training courses for medical and non medical practitioners. Learn the 3 Steps To Become a Phlebotomist