It says so right on the pack. Which part of "Do not reuse" do you not understand?When you quote that .. "they are designed for single use", I'm not sure where that came from since it is quite clear that they can be used multiple times with absolutely no problems providing you are careful in handling them
No it does not as you can get the same result by removing air bubbles with a new needle. What's more, the instructions specifically state "Always remove the needle after each injection and store Solostar without a needle attached. This helps prevent [...] entry of air into the insulin reservoir and leakage of insulin which can cause inaccurate dosing". Once again, RTFM - they don't include a square mile of instructions which each pack because they hate trees.so this ensures good dose accuracy
Possible consequences of reuseElectron micrographs were taken at the University of Grenoble, France, during 1997 by Dr. Jacques
Garden of pen needles and lancets that had been used by patients, according to their own normal reuse patterns in the treatment of their diabetes.The needles were then photographed under microscopic powers ranging from 370x to5000x.The observers noted the following (Look,Strauss 1998):
• Significant tip damage can occur after only one injection and was seen with all manufacturers studied
• The majority of needles and lancets showed tip damage when reused, despite the fact that pen needles only penetrate human skin witheach use, not a vial stopper.• Some needles were actually missing their tips— raising the question of whether the tips might be imbedded in the patient’s skin.
• Tip damage did not always increase proportionately with the number of times the needle was used. There were patients whose needles remained in good condition with repeated use. Therefore, skin type and injection technique may play roles in the degree of needle tip damage after use. In actual practice though, all reuse must be discouraged, as the damage occurs to such a small area of the needle tip that it cannot be detected without a high powered electron microscope — even where the needle tip has broken off.
1.Tissue microtrauma:When a deformed needle is used, it lacerates tissue, causingmicrotrauma.This can result in locally
significant bruising and bleeding.Volunteers in the German studies who reused lancets were found to have more residual bleeding in sites where a more heavily reused lancet was employed for the blood letting.
2. Embedded needle tips:The studies showed that excessive reuse (>7 times/needle) was often associated with a breaking off of the microscopic end of the needle tip. The medical consequence of embedded metal tips is unknown at this time.
3. Correlation with greater incidence of lipodystrophy: According to the analysis of the German studies cited above, local growth factors may be released and join with insulin to form lumpy nodules called “lipodistrophy.” Although at this time there is not proof that reuse leads to lipodystrophy (“lipos”), there is a correlation between reuse and lipodystrophy.While “lipos” are not frequently reported, it is estimated that 20- 45% of injecting patients with Type 1 diabetes mellitus and 3.6% with Type 2 diabetes mellitus will have “lipos” (Saez-de Ibarra, Gallego 1998) once a search is conducted. These are often easier to feel
than to see and can be disfiguring. People often prefer to inject into them because it is less painful.
It is recommended that those training patients
to inject insulin do the following:
1. Include a discussion on the risks of needle reuse in their patient training sessions.
• Patients should be taught to understand that when they dispose of a syringe, pen needle or lancet after one use, they are not being wasteful, but rather, they are helping reduce their risk of tissue damage and of having needle tips embedded in their skin.
• Since as a practical matter, patients will not be able to examine their reused needles under a high-powered electron microscope,
all patients should be advised to assume that they are among the vast majority of patients in whom the needle tips become hooked or broken off with repeated use.
JontyW said:I use Lantus SoloStar / Humalog Kwickpen pens and only change the needles when I change the pens. I have always done this for the past 30+ years and have never found any problems with infection or pain etc. When you quote that .. "they are designed for single use", I'm not sure where that came from since it is quite clear that they can be used multiple times with absolutely no problems providing you are careful in handling them. Obviously in surgery and hospital use it has to be "use only once" .....
One advantage of multiple usage is that, in order to clear any air bubbles, you only have to do that once when the needle is added, so this ensures good dose accuracy with no chance of bubbles reducing the dose. On average I use about 3 to 4 needles per month and the last box of 100 needles lasted me over 2 years. Same with finger pricking lancets .. I only change it about once/month (~ 200 uses) and have never had any problems what so everBut I appreciate no everyone may have the same experience.
picklebean said:JontyW said:I use Lantus SoloStar / Humalog Kwickpen pens and only change the needles when I change the pens. I have always done this for the past 30+ years and have never found any problems with infection or pain etc.
...... On average I use about 3 to 4 needles per month and the last box of 100 needles lasted me over 2 years. Same with finger pricking lancets .. I only change it about once/month (~ 200 uses) and have never had any problems what so everBut I appreciate no everyone may have the same experience.
I am NOT trying to be rude at all or personally attack you, but this is such bad practice! Have you read the instructions at all? Please take on board what AMBrennan has posted here! I would urge you to reconsider!!
Phoenix & AMBrennan are right! I totally agree! :clap:
To iHs.... The cost of needles is NOT the issue! If you use needles more than once you are damaging your body and running the HIGH risk of creating complications further down the line through lipohypertrophy and the poor control that ensues, costing the NHS far more money than the inital cost of the needles!
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