Lancets are small instruments used for the safe and careful extraction of capillary blood. These elements are used to make a small puncture in the skin to get a small drop of blood, usually used to analyse different values such as lactate, glucose, hemoglobin etc.

Nowadays there different sizes of lancets that depend on the diameter or thickness of the tip and its length, which will cause the lancet to make a puncture more or less thick and long, respectively. This, in turn, will allow us to obtain a greater or lesser volume of blood, so depending on the amount of blood we need for the analysis we are going to perform, we will use a lancet size or another.

The thickness of the lancet is measured in millimeters (mm) or Gauge (G). The higher the value in mm, the thicker the puncture performed by the lancet.

The Gauge (G), however, represents something totally different: the number of units that fit into 1 cm2. Therefore, the higher the value of G, the smaller the thickness of the lancet, since the greater the thickness of the lancet, the fewer units would fit in 1 cm2.

Please find below a table of correspondence of the thickness of the lancets (diameter) between both measures:

• 19G – 1,1 mm
• 20G – 0,9 mm
• 21G – 0,8 mm
• 22G – 0,7 mm
• 23G – 0,6 mm
• 24G – 0,54 mm
• 25G – 0,5 mm
• 28G – 0,35 mm
• 30G – 0,3 mm

At Laktate we have different types and sizes of lancets. The following lancets are recommended for use in lactate analysis:

• Pack of 100 lancets: pack consisting of 100 lancets to be used with a lancet holder.
• 200 sterile and individually packed lancets
• Unistik 3 Normal Security Lancets: 23G – 0,6 mm thick and 1.8mm long. They are called safety lancets because after handling the needle, it is kept inside the housing, thus excluding any risk of injury and contamination.

At Laktate we also have safety lancets of other thicknesses:

• Unistik 3 Extra: 21G – 0,8 mm thick and 2.0mm long. These lancets are indicated for hemoglobin measurements.
• Unistik 3 Comfort: 28G – 0,35 mm thick and 1.8mm long.
• Unistik 3 Gentle: 30G – 0,3 mm thick and 1.5mm long.