Guide For Choosing Best Syringe And Injection

Most of the people in world are using self administer drugs in home. Some of them are insulin, epinephrine, vitamin B12 and certain cancer medications. They are to be administered daily without fail and function as a life saving elixir. One must always know how to self inject safely without any hassle and to purchase the right needle and syringe. Choosing the right size is important to administer the right amount of medicine dosage and to minimise pain by injecting properly.

To make this process easier, all the items are sold separately and are designed to attach very easily. All the procedures are taught to you by a doctor or nurse on how to administer drugs, fix needles in syringes, the amount of dosage and also when to replace them.

Size of Syringe:

They are available with the drug level holding capacity label. There are two ways the capacity of syringe can be measure. One is millilitres, used for measuring volume of liquid and the other one is cubic centimetres, used for measuring volume of solids. Always make sure that the syringe can hold the dosage prescribed for you. For example if you are prescribed to administer yourself 2mm of drug, you must use a syringe which holds 2mm of drugs or more. If you use a syringe which holds accurately 2mm of drugs, chances are there that you have to use it more than once and it will cause pain unnecessarily. If you use a syringe which can hold higher capacity drugs, you will end up giving less or more as you cannot measure accurately.

Size of Needle:

Needles have a different sizing number when compared to syringes. They will have a letter ‘G’ followed by a number. The number before the letter ‘G’ indicates the gauge of the needle. If the number is higher, the number tends to be thinner. The second number indicates the length o the needle eg. 31 G ½.  

Needle Gauge:

It is always advisable to use a high gauge needle for administering small amount of medications on a daily basis as it is less painful compared to the lower gauge needle, which is wider in size. Thin needle is also helpful in case the person is having small sized veins. If the medicine amount is large, a wider sized needle is preferred. However it is bit painful, it will administer the drug faster than its counterpart.

Length of Needle:

The length of the needle required is decided based on the person to whom the drug is administered. Some medications are administered under the skin while others are injected on the muscles. There are two types associated with this subcutaneous injection and intramuscular injection. The first type can go into the fatty tissue under the skin and are smaller and shorter in size. The second type is used to administer into the muscle and are thicker and longer.