My son’s pump infusion sets are lasting fewer than two days, despite diligent site rotation. Is there any way to prolong the life of these infusion sets?

My six year old son was diagnosed with type 1 at the age of two. He has been using a Disetronic H-Tron V100 pump for three years. He pumps NovoRapid U100 insulin. He is healthy, but thin and lacking in subcutaneous fat, which limits sites to lower back and buttocks. There is evidence of lipohypertrophy, but we rotate his sites as much as possible. His blood sugars are in good control, except when the sites fail. His A1c ranges from 6.5 to 7.0, achieved with fingerprick tests eight to 10 times a day.

If you mean that his numbers are going up, then his body is just rejecting the infusion set. Sometimes if you insert the infusion set half way (if you are using a Tender OR Tender Mini), you will have less irritation at the muscle wall and sites will be lass irritated and last longer.

The issue with the lipohypertrophy may be due to the infusion set irritating the area near the muscle wall or it may be due to the NovoRapid. We have seen some children develop it more rapidly with NovoRapid. You can try switching to Humalog to see if there is a difference.

Finally, rotation should happen in a very systematic manner. The photo on the right shows a child with writing on her skin that beautifully shows the BEST way to rotate.

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Insulin pump infusion site rotation sequence

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