September 30, 2000
Blood Tests and Insulin Injections
Question from Ontario, Canada:
My 12 year old son recently switched from NPH to Ultralente, combined with Humalog. Now, his syringes seem to be clogging during injection quite often. We started to withdraw the U from the vials before the H (instead of the other way around as we always have) and this seems to have helped minimize the clogging. Is drawing up the insulins in this order safe?
Answer:
It does not matter in which order the insulins are drawn as long as you are careful and do not inject any of the cloudy Ultralente into the clear bottles of Humalog (or Regular for that matter). I do not know why it would matter in your syringes either but do what works.
SS
[Editor’s comment: Ultralente does tend to precipitate out very quickly. In agreement with Dr. Brink, it is extremely important not to get any of it (even a small drop) into the fast-acting insulin as it will change the action. Continually rolling the syringe after you have drawn up the U should eliminate the problem.
SS]
