Dead space in Insulin syringes

Nurses Medications

Published

Has anyone ever encountered difficulty with certain insulin syringes in getting what appears to be air at the top of the syringe out? For instance even though I attempt to push the "air" out it just stays there and insulin comes out. How do you explain that? Also flicking it doesn't make it go away.

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Draw up a couple extra units so that you can expell it. Once youre getting a constant flow of insulin out of the needle top you know theres no more air in there. thats usually how I go about it.

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Ours always have a small bubble that does not seem to be able to be expelled- no matter what. According to our director, the manufacturer says the dose is accurate despite the bubble.

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Specializes in Medical-Surgical/Float Pool/Stepdown.

Try leaving the insulin needle in the bottle while the bottle is turned upside down and pull on the plunger faster. After a few tries this generally works for me if flicking the syringe doesn't work. I do this with anything I'm drawing up, just leave the needle inside the bottle, pull back on the plunger fast, expel the air/excess amount back into the bottle/vial and voila!

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