Assessing pediatric trauma specimen integrity.

Objective: This study investigated the quality of trauma specimens by comparing line draws to venipuncture.

Design: The draw type (line or venipuncture); container type (Vacutainer or Microtainer); and suitability for processing (processed/hemolyzed/clotted) of routinely collected trauma specimens was analyzed.

Setting: The clinical laboratory of a Level I Pediatric Trauma Center.

Main Outcome Measure: Hemolyzed trauma specimens were analyzed according to method of collection, collector, and type of container to identify issues resulting in unusable samples.

Results: The data shows that for 13% of all draws, portions of the results were affected by hemolysis. Sixteen percent of line draws and 6% of venipunctures were hemolyzed (p = 0.04). There was no statistical association with who collected the sample (p = 0.07) or type of container (p = 1.00).

Conclusion: Based on this sample of data, the laboratory recommends that, whenever possible, venipunctures be performed for laboratory testing of blood specimens to improve trauma specimen integrity.