Every physician has seen, at times, a patient's morbid dread of a relatively minor therapeutic procedure which normally is accompanied by no risk whatever. Sometimes, confronted with the need for repeated venipuncture, an apprehensive patient may even ask to be dismissed and sent home without any treatment. On the other hand, it is common, in such an instance, to witness the great relief and disappearance of anxiety in the patient once the procedure has been carried out or, even more strikingly, once it is decided that repetition of the much-feared procedure is not necessary.
Such is certainly true of venipuncture in the minds of many patients. When a person who has scleroderma requires intravenous therapy, the trepidation and anxiety are compounded over and over again as the patient is faced with the knowledge that the needle may have to be reintroduced a number of times. The technique which