vivitrol injection

[Aleonard13]

hello

I'm new to giving vivitrol injection. I follow the directions, but when I inject the syringe, the medication gets clogged. I take out the needle/syringe, change needles and try a second time and it usually works. has anyone had this problem?

I really don't know what i'm doing wrong. my supervisor is not a nurse, so I have no one to problem solve with.

thank you :)

[Bradley822]

At my job they come prefilled in the syringes. Be sure you’re injecting them not to deep in the buttocks tissue because it can cause abscesses in the patient which I have seen before. Just follow the directions on the pack and you should be good.

[angeloublue22, BSN, RN]

Try drawing it up with a filter needle.

[Ruadh]

To Aleonard13:

I don’t think the 2 comments given knew the actual med you were referring to...Vivitrol does NOT come as a “prefilled syringe”, cannot be drawn with a filter needle and ideally should be placed in the ventrogluteal muscle.

I’ve been administering this med frequently for over two years and unfortunately it is known to ‘jam or clog’ on occasion. I contacted the manufacturer (Alkermes) about this and their rep came to our clinic—-her advice was this:

-Tap powder in vial in order to loosen

-Inject diluent into powder vial

-Shake vigoursly for precisely one min (use a timer)

-Turn bottle up-side-down and wait until you see med separate from top of bottle

-Draw med out, switch to needle for injection, tap out all bubbles and administer ASAP!

PLEASE note that even after following the manufacturers advice precisely (as listed above) the syringe will STILL, on occasion LOCK. When this happens you must remove, change needle, prime again & retry :o(

It’s such a nuisance and causes not only the patient an additional ‘stick’ & stress, but it is also very stressful for the nurse! I only hope improvements are made to thin the med out (w/thinner diluent) so not only could we use a thinner gauge (20 gauge), but so this doesn’t ever happen! (Just happened to me AGAIN today—-I’m sure I hate when it happens even more than the patient!).

[EKUGRAD, BSN, MSN, RN, CNS]

I had the same experience. Also, I had to DC half my patients after the first injection due to extreme nausea. At least one of my Vivitrol patients had a great deal of problems having a total knee surgery. The anesthesiologist, upon finding out about the Vivitrol, stated, "Damn it! A vivitrol patient!" he had to wait 6 weeks in constant pain while the naltrexone cleared his body. Even with the wait, anesthesia was very difficult. Even a Bier block was only partial effective. The paralytic even exerted varied response.

 

[wereallmadhere, ADN]

Follow directions included in the medication box. When in doubt shake it more, the medication should slide down the sides of the vial with ease, no clumps.  Do not prime until ready to inject. The only time I have had a clog was when I had primed the needle and a client then decided to tell me a long, drawn-out story.