Capillary (Dermal) Puncture Sites and Depth Limits
Infants are punctured on the medial or lateral plantar surface of the heel; older children and adults on the side of the fingertip of the middle or ring finger.
Sites by age
| patient | site | avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Newborns and infants | Heel: lateral or medial plantar surface | Posterior curvature of the heel, the centre of the heel pad, the arch, and old puncture sites |
| Older children and adults | Fingertip: side of the ball of the middle (3rd) or ring (4th) finger, across the fingerprint lines | Thumb and index finger (calluses), little finger (thin tissue), swollen or scarred sites |
| Adults and older children (alternative, mainly POC) | Earlobe |
WHO 2010 guidelines (Table 7.1): heel-prick from birth to about 6 months (about 3-10 kg); finger-prick over 6 months (more than about 10 kg). Follow your laboratory's age rule.
Preview only. The full sheet also covers: Puncture depth limits; Technique; Capillary order of draw.
Sources
- Clinical Nursing Skills, 10.4 Blood Sampling (CC BY-NC-SA; used for fact-checking only, no wording reused) · OpenStax, Rice University
- GP42 - Collection of Capillary Blood Specimens, 7th ed. (product description) · Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI)
- WHO guidelines on drawing blood: best practices in phlebotomy (2010); official WHO IRIS PDF (fetched 2026-10-22, identical to the copy cached 2026-10-21) · World Health Organization
- Lenicek Krleza J, et al. Capillary blood sampling: national recommendations on behalf of the Croatian Society of Medical Biochemistry and Laboratory Medicine. Biochem Med (Zagreb). 2015;25(3):335-358 (based on WHO 2010 and CLSI GP42-A6; capillary order of draw, finger and heel sites, 2.0 mm heel depth, first drop, bandaging under 2 years) · Biochemia Medica via PubMed Central (PMC4622200)