Question

A Patient states she is a difficult draw and requests a skin puncture. The test ordered is a PTT. What should you do?

a) capillary draw into a light blue microtainer
b) capillary draw into a lavender microtainer
c) syringe draw transferred into a laventer vacutainer
d) syringe draw transferred into a light blue vacutainer

Answer 1

For a Partial Thromboplastin Time test, when a patient requests a skin puncture, a syringe draw should be performed and then the blood should be transferred to a light blue vacutainer designed for coagulation tests.

Step-by-step explanation:

If a patient states she is a difficult draw and requests a skin puncture for a test requiring a PTT (Partial Thromboplastin Time), you should not perform a capillary draw into either a light blue microtainer or a lavender microtainer. The correct course of action would be to perform a syringe draw and then transfer the blood into a light blue vacutainer. The light blue vacutainer is specifically designed for coagulation tests such as PTT and contains sodium citrate, which acts as an anticoagulant. It is essential to take care when transferring blood from a syringe to a vacutainer to avoid hemolysis, which could affect test results.