PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Anthony Chauvin
AU  - Nicolas Javaud
AU  - Aiham Ghazali
AU  - Sonja Curac
AU  - Adrien Altar
AU  - Talina Ali
AU  - Nora Beguin
AU  - Julien Bellier
AU  - Antoine Coupier
AU  - Laura Delsarte
AU  - Dora Dreyfuss
AU  - Nour Kheirbek
AU  - Clara Oudar
AU  - Yoann Stordeur
AU  - Morgane Weiss
AU  - Stephane Gaudry
AU  - Jerome Lambert
AU  - Damien Roux
TI  - Reducing pain by using venous blood gas instead of arterial blood gas (VEINART): a multicentre randomised controlled trial
AID  - 10.1136/emermed-2019-209287
DP  - 2020 Dec 01
TA  - Emergency Medicine Journal
PG  - 756--761
VI  - 37
IP  - 12
4099  - http://emj.bmj.com/content/37/12/756.short
4100  - http://emj.bmj.com/content/37/12/756.full
SO  - Emerg Med J2020 Dec 01; 37
AB  - Introduction Venous sampling for blood gas analysis has been suggested as an alternative to arterial sampling in order to reduce pain. The main objective was to compare pain induced by venous and arterial sampling and to assess whether the type of sampling would affect clinical management or not.Methods We performed an open-label randomised multicentre prospective study in four French EDs during a 4-week period. Non-hypoxaemic adults, whose medical management required blood gas analysis, were randomly allocated using a computer-generated randomisation list stratified by centres with an allocation ratio of 1:1 using random blocks to one of the two arms: venous or arterial sampling. The primary outcome was the maximal pain during sampling, using the visual analogue scale. Secondary outcomes pertained to ease of sampling as rated by the nurse drawing the blood, and physician satisfaction regarding usefulness of biochemical data.Results 113 patients were included: 55 in the arterial and 58 in the venous sampling group. The mean maximal pain was 40.5 mm±24.9 mm and 22.6 mm±20.2 mm in the arterial group and the venous group, respectively, accounting for a mean difference of 17.9 mm (95% CI 9.6 to 26.3) (p<0.0001). Ease of blood sampling was greater in the venous group as compared with the arterial group (p=0.02). The usefulness of the results, evaluated by the prescriber, did not significantly differ (p=0.25).Conclusions Venous blood gas is less painful for patients than ABG in non-hypoxaemic patients. Venous blood gas should replace ABG in this setting.Trial registration number NCT03784664.