Doctor hopes needle nixes painful pricks.(Evening)

Byline: Sue Vorenberg svorenberg@abqtrib.com / 823-3678

BRIGHT IDEA

For doctors, using a normal syringe in some surgical procedures can be an exercise in finger contortion.

Pushing liquids into the body is not the problem it's using the syringe to withdraw a sample that causes nightmares, said Wilmer Sibbitt, a University of New Mexico Hospital doctor of internal medicine.

In procedures such as biopsies and spinal taps, where a doctor uses one hand to feel the body or adjust instruments, he must use his other hand alone to pull the syringe's plunger out typically by pushing against suction of the patient's body with just his thumb.

If the pressure of the awkward motion makes his hand shake or jerk, the patient is the one to suffer with extended hospital stays or additional pain, said Sibbitt, who thinks he has solved the problem by creating a new type of syringe.

"The problem with using one hand is the syringe becomes unstable," Sibbitt said. "Sometimes pulling the needle out that way causes it to actually push in more. That can puncture a lung or the heart. Even shaking it causes bruising that will make it take longer for a patient to heal."