Know the Importance of needles and syringes in the Medical field

This COVID-19 pandemic has made us all go through multiple anti-virus jabs. We all are possibly safe due to the important medical equipment called needles and syringes. They have been important medical tools for ages and are used to inject drugs safely into your body. Sometimes doctors prescribe us drugs that have to be injected on our own. Here’s where pertinent information and the importance of the syringe play their part. One must know what size needle and syringe are compatible with the prescribed medication. 

What to keep in mind while injecting oneself or a patient?

Different types of needles and syringes meet different medication requirements. Although, one who is involved in administering injection on oneself or a family member, he must know about: 

Right needle Size

When looking for the correct needle size for your prescribed medication, care to look at these two factors: – needle gauge and needle size.

Gauge refers to the thinness of the needle. The higher gauge means less painful experience. Another thing to be taken care of is the amount of medication to be injected. If a small portion of the drug is to be injected, a thin and high-gauge needle will be fine. Otherwise, you need a wide low-gauge needle to inject the drug effectively. 

Next comes the needle length. It depends on the patient’s size and the area where the needle is to be inserted. For example, a child needs a shorter needle length than an adult.

Right Syringe Size

Syringes play an important part as they carry the fluid that needs to be injected carefully. They come in different sizes–small and large syringes. The most common syringe sizes are  3ml syringe and 5ml syringe. The appropriate syringe size for an individual depends on the dose or volume of the prescribed medication and desired pressure flow. Larger syringe sizes are required in case of large quantities of medication and a need for lower pressure flows. Syringe capacity is measured in milliliters (ml) for liquid volume and cubic centimeters (cc) for the volume of solids. 

History of Syringes and Needles

Talking about the history of syringes and needles, they were an important medical tool in the past. They have existed for almost thousands of years now. Earlier, syringes didn’t have needles. Instead, they had hollow reeds, glass tubes, and goose quills. They were primarily used to apply medical ointment or to suction. For example, they were hugely in demand to fix cataracts from the eye through suction and medicine application through the skin. Over time with the global revolution, shapes, sizes, and utilization of injections got changed. Today, we are using ultra-modern and near painless medical equipment.

 

Let’s brush up your knowledge on syringes and what parts are a syringe made of:

The needle

A needle is a crucial part of a sterile syringe. It is basically a tapered hollow tube that pierces the skin and enables solutions to be injected into the body. The solutions are medical drugs that relieve pain or cure diseases when injected into the body. People often face needle fear as and it can be painful sometimes.

The plunger and piston

The plunger and piston work together to help control the amount and flow of medicine that your body receives via a needle.

The barrel

The barrel holds the medical solution. It is usually transparent, and once the medication has been dispensed via the needle into the body, the barrel gets empty.

 

Now, let’s discuss the most unsafe practices that ultimately lead to large-scale disease transmission among patients and health care providers. 

Improper needle and syringe waste management

Most health care organizations fail to appropriately discard the sharp waste, leaving the health worker and community at higher risk of bloodborne infections. Disposing of the syringes in open pits or dumping sites worsens conditions for stray animals. Moreover, discarding needle waste openly is an invitation for scammers to scavenge through waste. They wash and repackage them to resell the equipment. 

Reusing injection equipment

Tricky health workers sometimes administer injections to more than one patient. Shared injections lead to bloodborne viruses such as HIV, HBV, and HCV from one patient to another. Bad practices are often ingrained and believed to be safe, such as using used vials multiple times, reusing syringe barrels or the whole syringe, informal cleaning or not sterilizing, and other such practices. 

Accidental Needle-stick injuries

Openly discarded needles or syringes lead to accidental injuries, causing a higher risk of HCWs and other contagious diseases. These injuries are a hazard for people who work with syringes and needle equipment, such as handling trash, etc. Accidents and sharing needles can pass on many other kinds of viruses and bacteria, including:

  1. Hepatitis C
  2. Syphilis
  3. Rocky Mountain spotted fever
  4. Varicella-zoster virus, which causes chickenpox and shingles
  5. Epstein-Barr, a type of herpes virus

Overuse of injections

This practice is most common in many countries where injections are perceived as the optimal form of care and assumed to be a more effective treatment than medicines. However, overuse or overdose of injections per person is considered unsafe as it can lead to Hepatitis B virus, Hepatitis C virus, and other such diseases.