Can a Cannula damage your veins/leave scars?

Awww no worries Hun. Let me know how it goes and best of luck. Hopefully it won't hurt or be painful or leave any bruises.

Had a few, inner arm below the elbow - no permanent scars visible.
sometimes a bit achy... but the 'several attempts' helena mentioned will IME ache and bruise more than a cannula that goes in properly first time so if you've got 'the difficult veins' you should want to minimise the number of occasions on which people are trying to stab anything into them

fwiw apparently I've got lovely veins - I just got a blind doctor once

Thank you Where do they usually put them, in your elbows? Do they usually only have to change them once every 3 days?

They go either in your hand or the bit behind your elbow dot know what it's called

Can you choose? Really don't want any in my hands

Can you choose? Really don't want any in my hands

Thank you I will It's not till December fortunately



Thanks How often did they have to change them? Seems like they may be a better option lol

Cannulas tend not to leave any scars, certainly none that I've ever seen. They can sometimes leave bruises but it's less likely in a young person with good placement of the cannula. Infection is pretty uncommon as the skin is cleaned thoroughly beforehand. I've not known them to cause lasting damage to veins.

In terms of pain, it's a bit of a scratch initially, then nothing. Usually tolerated the same as a normal blood test.

There are different sizes, but the smaller ones are less likely to give you blood and they tend to block off much faster.

They're generally replaced routinely every 72 hours. Less if there are problems with the cannula.

They can be put anywhere, but the most common sites would be the back of the hand, the thumb side of the wrist or the inside of the elbow. The person putting it in will try to go by your preference, within what is possible!

Finally, keep in mind that regularly taking blood from a cannula isn't generally a done thing. You can get blood when it's first placed but often not much after that, usually because the cannula won't let you. I'm not sure who told you this would be the case, but it's not likely to happen unfortunately.

You can state a preference, but there are no guarantees they'll be able to get one in your preferred site. I prefer to use hands/forearms instead of elbows, as the veins are straighter and the cannula doesn't get kinked every time you bend your arm.

I think you're making this a bigger deal in your head than it actually is. Once it's in, it's just a thin plastic tube in the vein, the fiddly bits are all on the outside.

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Thanks. I thought cannulas were placed so they could take blood from them regularly? (That's the reason they told me they might need one for, I'm not on a drip or anything. The doctor said something about sometimes needing to take 3 or 4 blood samples over a couple of hours instead of a day, though, I don't know why that many..).

PRSOM but I'll personal rep thanks

No, cannulas are placed to give drugs or fluids regularly. They're a bit temperamental when it comes to giving blood once they've sat for a while. The longer they've been in, the less reliable they are.

How long do they usually last on smaller patients?

If it's only around a day and they need to be replacing them every day I might just opt for the 3 or 4 blood tests.

Depends on the size of the cannula and what vein they use. Inside of the elbow would give more blood than a vein on the back of the hand.

If you're having multiple tests in one day then it may work. They can be reluctant give any blood back after a few hours though.

They're generally fairly easy to place, depending on the patient. The difficult ones are usually the unwell patients, patients on chemotherapy, patients who have been in a long time etc.

Thanks. Do they last longer if they're placed somewhere they don't bend so much? (so maybe not the elbow then.)

Would you recommend them over 3-4 blood tests a day? It's for a week btw.

Elbow generally lasts longer in my experience as it's a large vein.

It really depends on the circumstance. Also, don't get into the mindset that you have "difficult veins" just because one person said so. That's something I've heard from patients a million times before and more often than not, it's pretty straight forward.

OK, thanks.

Yeah, the doctor and I were discussing the upcoming blood tests and she took a look at the insides of my elbows without even doing one and said I had bad veins. Some nurses have had trouble before but then you get people who never have any difficulty