Intramuscular Injection Sites?

OK, help me out. I never heard of Dorsogluteal? I give all my injections in the ventroglut or the deltoid if small and nonirritating.

LOVE that streaming media site, THANKS!

At one of our clinical sites Dorsogluteal injections are no longer allowed due to the risk of sciatic nerve damage. Ventrogluteal is preferred at that specific location. At this facility, RN's are also not allowed to give dorsogluteal injections. I guess they had a specific issue.

We are only allowed to give IM shots to infants in the vastus lateralis.

All of our other clinical sites allow us to choose the area based on size of dosage, characteristics of med, size of person.

Amanda

I just graduated LPN school this past Feb, and their preferred site was vastus lateralis (yes, on adults)...***?!?! I've only seen that site used once and it was because the gentleman was very thin and in end-stage Parkinson's, so turning him was difficult for the nurses and painful for himl; also, he was very thin and had more "meat" on his vastus than his dorsus. The most common site I've seen used in practice (for adults) is the dorso-gluteal.

I always use dorsogluteal, it is what I feel most comfortable with. That is the site that most of the people I work with also use.

I always use the dorso gluteal. I was taught to find the superior iliac crest, go 5 cm diagonally from there into the dorso gluteal muscle and thats the mark. Is that still ok?

6th edition of Potter and Perry's Fundamentals of Nursing states that the dorsogluteal site should not be used because of the danger of hitting the sciatic nerve. I know someone who suffered permanent damage from just this very thing from an injection he received in the ER. I rarely give IMs anymore anyway. Most of our meds are given IV.

For all of you who use the dorsal glut's, read the bold and read it again if you still desire to use the dorsal glut. The last thing you want to be involved in is a lawsuit over a person who's lost partial use of a leg because you used a site for an injection that is no longer reccommended!!!! I personally used the ventral glut or the Vastus Lateralis, and actually favor the vastus over the glut in most cases. Don't change your practice because of anything I or anyone else said, change it for your patients!!!

Wow, I am glad to have seen this thread. Perry & Potter are recommending no longer using dorsogluteal????? Good to know, as another poster pointed out about the potential for lawsuit. Personally I have looked at my P&P book about 6 times since graduating, but we all know how well the "But I didn't know" approach goes over should someone decide to point fingers at you for something.

Aside from that, after reading this post (and watching that awesome streaming video, that was way helpful, thanks!) I did use the VG on a pt who got 50 mg Phenergan IM, her usual dose for migraine-related nausea. Knowing how irritating that med is, I used the VG, and the pt immediately commented on how much more tolerable this injection was than any other she'd had.

So watch the streaming video, know the location of the VG, and go for it! Happy pts AND not going to court for nerve damage, how great is that?

I can't remember that last time I gavee an IM, might hveve been a flu shot to a co-worker a couple of years ago. Any way, when my oldest was born I received several dorsalgluteal injections.26 yers later I can still remember the pain that ran down the back of my right leg for several weeks afterwards.