Design Statement

for
Better Ergonomic Handling for Mobile Optical Vein
Viewer
Irina Gotsiridze1, Tohid Talebifar2

*1 PhD, Professor. Head of Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgian Technical University (e-mail: i.gotsiridze@gtu.ge)

*2 Doctoral Student, Assistant of Biomedical Engineering, Georgian Technical University (e-mail: tohid.biomedeng@gmail.com)

Abstract- Nowadays ergonomic has important role in designing tools in our life. Biomedical devices also one of the
important devices that use by medical profession each days in hospital clinic and … . In this article we represent our
design statement for one of the simple but important devices in PIVC. Vein viewer are devices that reduce the
amount of time it takes to find a vein. First we start to introduce vein viewer devices in market then we represent our
design idea about improvement of ergonomic handling of these type of devices.

Keywords- Biomedical Design, Ergonomic, Vein viewer, Visible light transilluminator vein detection, 3-D Moddeling,

3-D printing, Design Statement and Process

I. INTRODUCTION

Around Up to 80% of all patients admitted to hospitals worldwide will have a peripheral intravenous line
inserted in the forearm or hand to administer fluids, medications, and blood products. [1] Sometime this procedure
can be difficult for paramedics or others in such cases like infants and elderly people, as well as in obese patients,
dark skinned people, intravenous drug abusers, hypotensive individuals, and those with multiple injuries that limit
the number of available limbs and may require several attempts, causing distress. Difficult venous access affects
more than one-third of patients at hemophilia treatment centers. [1] Vein finder devices drastically reduce the
amount of time it takes to find a vein. They eliminate wasting needles, syringes, PICC and midline trays on stick
after stick. They are non-invasive because all they do is make use of light so you can see veins in subcutaneous
tissue. [2]

We have 2 main types of Vein Finder; [2]

1. Active Vein Finder that use red and infrared light to fluoresce hemoglobin in the blood.

2. Passive Vein Finder that alter the qualities of visible light to make veins easier to see.

Active Vein finder also can divided into two subcategories; [2]

a) Visible Light Transilluminator

b) Near Infrared (NIR) Spectroscopy

In this Article we focus on Visible Light Transilluminator device.

Visible light transilluminator: This simple technology is based on LED (light emitted diode) light waves that
penetrate tissue, are absorbable by hemoglobin, and are visible to the human eye. The skin reflects the short-
wavelength light (blue and green) and absorbs the long-wavelength light (orange and red). The intensity of the
light reflected from the surface of the skin overpowers the transmitted light, limiting the naked eye's visualization
of superficial veins. Reflected light is reduced and deeper veins visualization is increased by applying LED light
waves, which are easily absorbed by deoxygenated hemoglobin in venous blood and show up as dark areas on the
skin. An improvement to this method, side-transillumination, uniformly transilluminates a small region of the skin
to obtain better imaging of veins without shadows, and enables penetration of light into tissue for vein imaging
up to 6 mm in depth, depending on the size of the vein [1]. Some devices, like the one shown in Figure 2, use
side-transillumination to transmit a circular array of bright LED light inclined inwards at an angle, such that the
light is focused towards the center of the circle and below the surface of the skin, creating a virtual light source
under the skin. This technique achieves uniform transillumination of a small region of tissue and enables
visualization of peripheral veins. Most devices are portable and work on batteries and are operable only in a dark
room. A clinical study with one such a device, the Veinlite™ vein finder, reported an accuracy of 85% compared
to 74% with the standard method. This technology is particularly effective in children, and models have been
developed for specific applications, including emergency, oncology and radiology purposes. [1]

There are many types of Visible light transilluminator (VLT) vein viewer in market with different design
and structure. In this essay we try to review important commercial VLT device in market and then based on
ergonomic handling, represent our design statement for better handling for this type of device.

II. ERGONIMIC HANDLING FOR VLT VEIN VIWER

Ergonomics or ergonomic handling is all about fitting the tools to its users with an enhanced sense of
safety and utility. The designing of instruments is done by professionals, who very well understand their particular
use, work environment, safety and the comfort factor. [3]

Ergonomic Handling plays a crucial role in devising proper safety procedures like the use of hand gloves
as protection against thermal and electric hazards, handle made of a particular material for the firm grip, wearing
of safety gears like protective goggles, non-slipping shoes, easy access to the tool without unduly straining
muscles and skeletal frame. [3]

Now we want to focus on handling of Veinlite vein finders. Veinlite vein finders are the easiest and most effective
vein access devices on the market. This device is pocket size and easy to use. Here in the figure 1 is the procedure
of finding veins by using this device.

Fig.1 procedure of finding vein; A. First turn on device, B. use devices perpendicular to the arm bone and go up
 and down to find shadows (veins), C. then when you find best vein for injection you need to turn the devices
parallel to arm bone and do the injection. [4]

In the Figure 2 also you can see picture of how we handling device when we want to do injection into the vein.

Fig.2 How we handling device when we want to do injection into the vein. [4]

Now we want to offer a new ergonomic design for these type of devices for better and comfortable handling. We
use Modelling Clay for finding best position of fingers on the device handler.

In our model we design our handler based on 3 finger handling (Thumb, Index finger & Middle finger) this type
of handling is mostly for lighter tools or devices such as Pediatric Vein Viewer (in Veinlite PEDI the weight of
devices is something about 41 gr. [5] ) . We can see in Figure 3 this type of handling.

Fig.3 grabbing tools with 3 fingers.

We use modeling clay to locate position of fingers when we grab the device handler. In figure 4 you can see
Conceptual Sketching of our Conceptual Design for VLT device. Also in figure 5 you can see the picture of how
the fingers positioning when we grabbing clay model of handler.

Fig4. Conceptual Sketching and Model for VLT device

Fig.5 A. How we grab handler when we want to seeking for vein position on arm, B. How we grab handler
when we want to do injection into the vein.
Here are issues that we need to consider about them for the next steps;

1. Handler can be foldable: for this design we need to think about internal space for when it bend.

2. Handler also can be design and produce separated and then can attach to devices: for this design we need to
think about docking methods

3. Based on empirical research best handling will happen when the handler is on the near center of gravity of
devices: For this design we need to think about position of different parts such as batteries and … related to
position of handler.

4. For manufacturing of handler we think that 3-D printing can also be a good option for us, because of its potential
for producing these type of ergonomic handling tools.

III. CONCLUSION

Ergonomics or ergonomic handling is all about fitting the tools to its users with an enhanced sense of safety
and utility. Ergonomic Handling plays a crucial role in devising easy access to the tool without unduly straining
muscles and skeletal frame. Around Up to 80% of all patients admitted to hospitals worldwide will have a
peripheral intravenous line inserted in the forearm or hand to administer fluids, medications, and blood products.
Sometime this procedure can be difficult for paramedics or others. Vein finder devices drastically reduce the
amount of time it takes to find a vein. Visible light transilluminator is based on LED (light emitted diode) light
waves that penetrate tissue, are absorbable by hemoglobin, and are visible to the human eye. Veinlite vein finders
are the easiest and most effective vein access devices on the market. This device is pocket size and easy to use.

We want to offer a new ergonomic design for these type of devices for better and comfortable handling. We
use Modelling Clay for finding best position of fingers on the device handler. In our model we design our handler
based on 3 finger handling (Thumb, Index finger & Middle finger) this type of handling is mostly for lighter tools
or devices such as Pediatric Vein Viewer. There are some consideration that we need to study in the nest levels
such as; foldability of handler or being separated part and then can attach to device, position of handler on device
and it can be effect on engineering design of device and also manufacturing methods for our goal.

REFERENCES

1. Peripheral vein locating techniques/ Gali Cantor-Peled, Moshe Halak & Zehava Ovadia-Blechman/ Department of Medical
Engineering,Afeka Tel Aviv Academic College of Engineering, Tel Aviv, Israel/Department of Vascular Surgery, Sheba Medical Center.-

2. https://thingsnurseslike.com, June 2018.

3. http://ergonomic-handling.com/why-ergonomic-handling-for-tools-is-so-important/ Sep. 2018
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIFzBx9FDJg / Sep. 2018

5. https://www.veinlite.com/compare-veinlite-models / Sep. 2018