Incidence and prognosis of persistent pain induced by venipuncture for blood sampling: an observational study over a 5-year period.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence and prognosis of persistent and neuropathic pain induced by venipuncture for blood sampling in clinical practice.

DESIGN &

SETTING

We investigated the incidence of persistent and neuropathic pain after venipuncture for blood sampling and evaluated the prognosis of patients with neuropathic pain at Nihon University Itabashi Hospital, Japan, based on an observational study.

SUBJECTS: Outpatients who required venipuncture for blood sampling at the laboratory room of Nihon University Itabashi Hospital between 2004 and 2008 were included as study subjects.

RESULTS

In the present study, of the 587,551 venipunctures performed at our hospital between 2004 and 2008, the incidences of persistent and neuropathic pain after venipuncture were 1 in every 4,418 venipunctures (133/587,551) and 1 in every 30,923 venipunctures (19/587,551), respectively. All the 19 patients who were identified as having neuropathic pain recovered completely.

CONCLUSIONS

We demonstrated that the incidence of persistent pain after venipuncture for blood sampling is low and that its prognosis is good.