Insulin syringes: dangers of dead space.
To assess the accuracy and reproducibility of various U100 insulin syringes in the hands of diabetics, we devised a method to measure individual insulins injected from the syringe. We found alarming inaccuracies with dead-space-containing syringes when two insulins were mixed in the syringe before injection; these errors exceeded 100% with low doses. Reproducibility of dose was also poor with dead-space syringes. Syringes with minimal dead space overcome these problems and we recommend that all diabetics who mix insulins should use these syringes.
D006801:Humans; D007328:Insulin / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes / Q000008:administration & dosage; D013594:Syringes / Q000592:standards*
D007328:Insulin; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes