Paracentesis: a new needle for an old technique.
Servizio di Gastroenterologia ed Endoscopia Digestiva Arcispedale S. Anna, Ferrara.
The increasing use of paracentesis has prompted us to look into medical devices that might be useful for making the technique quicker and safer. Therefore we have designed a sterile, disposable, painless and safe needle that allows us to perform paracentesis in 30 patients, extracting an average of 6,000 cc of ascitic fluid in about 120 minutes, without any serious complications.
PMID: 2050013 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]