Abstract:

Objective：To observe the effects of two kinds of vein puncture in elderly patients with pitting edema. Methods: Fifty
patients with pitting edema hospitalized in The Sixth Affiliated Hospital of Dali University from January 2014 to June 2015 were
selected and randomly divided into the control group and the observation group, each with 25 patients. The patents of the control group
were required to clench the fist of the arm to which the tourniquet was applied for venipuncture, while in the observation group patients
didn't clench the fists and tourniquets were not applied, but instead we only used 75% alcohol for external application. Then we
compared the first-stick success rate, degree of pain felt by patients and their satisfaction between the two groups. Results: The
differences between the two groups were statistically significant（P＜0.01）. The result of the observation group was better than that of
the control group. Conclusion：The method without the use of tourniquets and with no requirements of clenching the fist for
venipuncture in the senior patien

Key words: elderly patients, pitting edema, venipuncture, methods