No products in the cart.
Medical Industry
A Complete Guide to Vacutainer® Tubes
Vacutainer® tubes are test tubes and related accessories designed to collect substances for medical purposes. If you’re interested in purchasing Vacutainer® tubes, you may need a guide to help you tell the different types apart and determine which is best for your specific purposes. In this guide, we’ll explain what you need to know.
What is Vacutainer® and Vacutainer® Systems?
Vacutainer® tubes are sterile plastic/glass tubes with a vacuum seal on the inside. This low-pressure environment allows for the collection of blood or other liquids. Also, the colour on the top of the tube indicates whether there are additives in the tubes and what those additives are. The additives are designed to preserve or stabilize the specimen you’ve collected, so it is important to match the right colour top with the kind of collection you’re performing.
There are also Vacutainer® systems or tubes with accessories that make certain collections simpler and safer. One example is the Vacutainer® blood collection set, which has a vein-safety activation feature. You can also get Vacutainer® urine collection kits that are used for urinalysis. These are sterile and include a soap towelette, cup, and other tubes. There are also Vacutainer® tube holders for convenience that will hold up multiple tubes for your use.
Types of VVacutainer® Tubes
Many types of these tubes help with different collections or tests. These include:
Vacutainer® Plus plastic whole blood tube, Lavender BD Hemogard™: These lavender-topped blood tubes also have a closure to help prevent splashing. The uses for these tubes include blood donor screening, blood hematology determination and immunohematology.
Vacutainer® Plus PST™ Plasma: These light green tubes include a polymer separator gel, preventing you from having to wait for clot formation. They are ideal for STAT procedures and anticoagulant therapy.
Vacutainer® Plus Blood Collection Tube: These tubes are specifically for glucose determination. They have a grey closure to identify them. They include a potassium oxalate additive and include a Hemogard™ closure to prevent splashing.
Vacutainer® Plus SST™ Serum Tube: These tubes are intended for serum determination in chemistry but may be used for immunohematology, diagnostic testing for infectious diseases, and routine blood donor screening. The yellow top indicates it has a polymer separator gel and clot activator additive.
Vacutainer® Plus Plasma Tube, Lithium Heparin: This tube has a dark green top, darker than the plasma tubes we mention above. These dark green tubes are for plasma determinations in chemistry. They also include the Hemogard™ closure.
Vacutainer® Venous Blood Collection Tube: These sterile, vacuum-sealed tubes have rubber stoppers to isolate any drops from the needle you use for blood collection. This prevents potential contact and makes venous blood collection safer. You can distinguish these tubes by their gold top.
Each of these types of tubes have a number of different models, which offers you a variety of variations of volume, length and overall composition and ingredients. These different models allow you to choose the Vacutainer© tube that suits your collection or test needs.
CanGard Offers Vacutainer® Tubes
You can find all the Vacutainer® tubes you require, along with the PPE you need to protect yourself right here at CanGard. Explore our inventory or reach out to us today.
**Vacutainer® is a registered trademark of Becton, Dickinson and Company.
