INTRODUCTION: In emergency departments, it is important to have tests that give fast results especially in the diagnosis and treatment of critically ill patients. Blood gas analysis has an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of patients applying for emergency services. On the other hand, taking samples for blood gas may differ based on clinic properties of patients. Puncture of arteries in sampling is a painful procedure. It is aimed to evaluate the differences between visual analogue pain scales of patients based on different punctured veins.

METHODS: In this retrospective study, files of patients attempted to Ufuk University, Medical Faculty Dr Rıdvan Ege Education and Research Hospital, Department of Emergency Medicine between 01.01.2015– 31.12.2017 with the punctured veins process at the age of 18–65 were examined.

RESULTS: A total of 84 patient files, including 55 radial and 31 femoral punctured veins, were subjected to the research. 36.4% of patients in the radial group were female, and 63.6% of them were male. In the fem- oral group, 45.2% of patients were female and 54.8% were male. Gender differences between groups were found to be statistically insignificant (p > 0.05). BMI of groups was also statistically insignificant (p > 0.05). Chronic disease distribution was found to be statistically insignificant between the groups (p > 0.05). VA score of the femoral group (6.32 ± 1.70) was significantly higher than the radial group (5.15 ± 1.98) (p < 0.05). In the sampling difficulty groups, patients whose samplings were difficult were significantly higher than other groups (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, VA score for femoral arterial puncture is higher than a radial arterial puncture. In other words, taking blood gas with the radial arterial procedure is less painful than the femoral arterial pro- cedure. In addition, hypertension is also an important factor affecting pain after arterial puncture with VAS.