When the doctor/nurse takes blood from you, why do they try to find a vein, not an artery? And also why is this mainly done on the arm as opposed to other parts of the body?
In: Biology
The arteries have higher blood pressure so there would be a lot more bleeding.
They are alose deeper down in the tissue. So just for this reason, you use veins.
The arms are primarily used because people care less if you touch them, easy to get access, and move and there are shallow and large veins in the elbow area. You can in a simple way put a tourniquet around the arm so the veins increase in size.
The tourniquet usage make the arms and legs the best spot to find veins.
If there is one location with easy access, you can just sit down and stretch out your you arm, none or very little clothing need to be moved a people do not care if you touch that part, Why would you not primary use it?
If that fails for some reason like lots of scar tissue on the veins you usually do it on the feet with shallow veins and part of the body to access and another location people do not care if you touch.
Thre is likely shallow veins in the knees but to get there the patient would need to lay down on this stomach so it is a very unpractical location.
You do not use the hand to take blood in large part because it is a more sensitive area and if there is some bleeding below the skint it is a lot more visible.
But you use it for intravenous therapy because you can use tape to attach the catheter and the lines to the skin a simple way. the backside of the hand is a stable area that in most situations is not in contact with other parts of the body, a chair, bed etc so it is a location where is the leas in the way for the patient.
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