Help with snake injections

[minotaur]

As a med student who just learned about this I feel somewhat qualified to answer, even though the anatomy of the subject receiving the injection is a little different. It is true that tiny air bubbles, if injected into a vein could cause an air embolism. Muscular injections do not suffer from this problem. The key is to make sure you havent mistakenly injected into a vein. After inserting the needle draw back GENTLY on the plunger. If you see blood sucked back into the syringe just reposition and try again. If there is no blood after pulling back, you are okay to inject the small air bubbles. Hope that helps.

[slartibartfast]

Hold the syringe with needle pointing up at the ceiling, and flick it repeatedly with your fingernail. The bubbles will migrate up to the hub of the needle, and can be expressed before administering the shot.

[moespeaking]

slartibartfast, what do you mean when you see the bubbles can be expressed before administering the shot. Do you mean by pushing slightly on the plunger, If so the amount of medication is so small that even if you push it ever so slightly you lose half of it. If not could you please explain more.

[slartibartfast]

What volume of liquid are we talking about here?

[minotaur]

Yeah, and what size syringe?

[moespeaking]

.06cc of ambocin or something like that its hard to read the hand writing. The needles say: single use only for u-100 insulin made my Terumo the total capacity says 1/2cc 50 units. I dont have the steadiest hand so when I push on the plunger a little, its really more pressure then I would like to apply.

[slartibartfast]

That is really tiny. I wouldn't worry about air bubbles that small.

[minotaur]

60 microliters in a 500 microliter syringe is a TINY amount, no wonder you had trouble removing the air. The plungers on those insulin syringes are not very sensitive unless you have super steady hands. With that quantity I would still suggest just pulling back on the syringe a little after its inserted to make sure you are definitely in a muscle. Regardless, the quantities of air that could possibly be trapped in .06 cc of fluid would probably not be enough to cause any problems even if injected directly into a vessel. But to be safe, just take the time to make sure you are in the muscle.