Paracentesis: a new needle for an old technique.

: The increasing use of paracentesis has prompted us to look into medical devices that might be useful for making the technique quicker and safer. Therefore we have designed a sterile, disposable, painless and safe needle that allows us to perform paracentesis in 30 patients, extracting an average of 6,000 cc of ascitic fluid in about 120 minutes, without any serious complications.