• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

How to eliminate air in the cartridge

S

spake

Newbie
Messages
4
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
One would think this would be easy, but these insulin cartridges don't work as normal syringes. The needle that you insert seems to be a bit longer that needed and it's really difficult to get the air out. Does anyone have a useful tip for this?
 
@spake, you don't need to. You inject with the needle down, so any air in the cartridge is up near the plunger at the top.
 
spake said:
One would think this would be easy, but these insulin cartridges don't work as normal syringes. The needle that you insert seems to be a bit longer that needed and it's really difficult to get the air out. Does anyone have a useful tip for this?
Click to expand...

Are you talking about an insulin pen? I often used to give my cartridge a gentle flick to bring any bubbles near the top of the cartridge, then I did my airshot. I've never had problems with bubbles.
 
I always inject air upwards into a vial and then withdraw the insulin which will also have an air bubble. I then push the plunger up quickly to make the insulin and bubble go back into the vial and then withdraw again slowly. Sometimes this procedure needs to be repeated by pushing up plunger and withdrawing again until no bubble is visable. If I dont put the cartridge in the pump straight away, as the insulin warms up a bit more, there will be a bubble appear so I just use my thumb nail and gently flick the bubble up into the neck of the cartridge and then attach the tube and manually push the plunger up a tiny bit to make the bubble go into the tube and then I load the cartridge into the pump and load cartridge and then prime and watch the insulin plus bubble go to the end of the tube clip needle.

If injecting air downwards into a vial, don't do as I did years ago and inject 300unitsts of air downwards into a brand new vial. The pressure of air will be so great that the cartridge will fill ukp with air and insulin and will blow the o ring seals off the inside the cartridge and insulin will go everywhere.
 
If we're talking about cartridges in a pen, then the only time I really got bubbles in them was when I left the pentip on to use it for multiple injections and I went between warm and cold conditions.
 
Back
Top