August 4, 2000
Blood Tests and Insulin Injections
Question from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada:
What is the importance of putting air into a vial of insulin before drawing out the insulin? I can’t see any advantage to it and find that it makes the entire procedure longer, more confusing and it seems to get lots more air bubbles into the syringe. I have stopped doing it for the time being, but I’m feeling uncertain about the decision.
Answer:
You don’t really need to put air into a vial to draw out insulin, as the amount you need to draw out is quite small in terms of the volume needed. With large volumes what can happen is that you are creating a vacuum within the vial so that it becomes more difficult to draw out fluid the more you try. However, this shouldn’t be a great problem with insulin, and if you can manage without introducing air, then you don’t need to do it.
JS
