Vacutainer Tubes & Accessories

The BD Vacutainer® blood collection system is a closed evacuated system, which consists of a double-ended needle with safety valve, BD Vacutainer® holder and sterile BD Vacutainer® tubes with pre-measured vacuum.

Blood is collected by screwing the sleeve-covered end of the needle into the holder, then puncturing the patients' vein with the other end. After performing venepuncture the tube is then pushed down into the holder, and the pre-measured vacuum of the tube allows the required volume of blood to be drawn.

There are many advantages to using the BD Vacutainer® blood collection system:

• It is hygienic because the blood is drawn directly into the tube eliminating user exposure.
• It is a standardized method of blood collection, extracting a predetermined amount of blood and mixing it with a consistent quantity and quality of additive.
There is a wide range of colour-coded tubes available with pre-measured additives for a variety of analytical tests covering haematology, clinical chemistry, immunology chemistry and coagulation.
• There is no manual influence on the drawing of blood so the process remains consistent. The system is a more reliable alternative to the traditional needle and syringe technique.

The tubes are colour coded according to the appropriate additive and international standards (ISO 6710). If a tube is used for reduced volume of draw, the closure is a translucent version of the colour-coded closure.

BD Vacutainer® Plus (plastic) blood collection tubes are latex free and are made from medical grade PET (Polyethelene Terepthalate), which is clear, shatter resistant and offers a clinically safer alternative to glass.

Besides the usual paper labels, several tubes are also offered unlabelled. These unlabelled "See-Thru" tubes are especially designed to allow for better visibility of the sample and for those laboratories using their own label such as bar code labels.

BD Vacutainer® blood collection tubes incorporate the latex-free BD Hemogard™ Safety Closure , which has two parts: an inner stopper and an outer protective cap. The BD Hemogard™ Safety Closure is easier to remove than conventional stoppers , and protects the user from contact with patients' blood. The BD Hemogard™ Safety Closure may also be removed using an automated system such as Pluggo™ (available from Clinicon UK Ltd). The BD Vacutainer® blood collection tubes can be recapped using secondary over-caps (also from Clinicon UK Ltd).

The Alternative to the BD Hemogard™ Safety Closure is the traditional conventional stopper.