Practice Injection

[Meri Thilmony]

Safeinjection practices are actions healthcare providers should follow when performing medical injections. A safe injection does not harm the recipient or expose the healthcare provider to avoidable risks.

Healthcare providers should never reuse a needle or syringe on more than one patient. Providers must discard both needles and syringes once used. Reusing the needle and/or syringe is unsafe and can spread disease.

Most healthcare providers follow safe injection practices. Though not common, unsafe injection practices sometimes occur. When unsafe injection practices occur, providers should notify possibly affected patients and inform them to get tested.

A single-dose vial is a bottle of liquid medication healthcare providers give to a patient using a needle and syringe. A single-dose vial is approved for use on a single patient for a single procedure or injection.

Vaccines should be drawn up in a designated clean medication area that is not adjacent to areas where potentially contaminated items are placed. Multi-dose vials to be used for more than one patient should not be kept or accessed in the immediate patient treatment area. This is to prevent inadvertent contamination of the vial through direct or indirect contact with potentially contaminated surfaces or equipment that could then lead to infections in subsequent patients (3). Smallpox vaccine is accessed by dipping a bifurcated needle directly into the vaccine vial. The vaccine adheres to the sides of the bifurcated needle, and is administered via skin puncture. The vial must be accessed in the immediate patient area to reduce environmental contamination by vaccine virus. To prevent contamination of the vial, make sure the patient area is clean and free of potentially contaminated equipment.

In certain circumstances in which a single vaccine type is being used (e.g., in preparation for a community influenza vaccination campaign), filling a small number (10 or fewer) of syringes may be considered (5). The doses should be administered as soon as possible after filling, by the same person who filled the syringes. Unused syringes that are prefilled by the manufacturer and activated (i.e., syringe cap removed or needle attached) should be discarded at the end of the clinic day. Vaccine from two or more vials should never be combined to make one or more doses. This can lead to violation of expiration dates and product contamination (6,7).

Providers are sometimes concerned when they have the same contraindications or precautions as their patients from whom they withhold or defer vaccine. For administration of routinely recommended vaccines, there is no evidence of risk of exposure of vaccine components to the health care provider, so conditions in the provider labeled as contraindications and precautions to a vaccine components are not a reason to withdraw from this function of administering the vaccine to someone else. Historic concerns about exposure to vaccine components are limited to non-parenteral vaccines in which some degree of environmental exposure is unavoidable (5, 8), or situations in which self-inoculation is likely due to the nature of the vaccine microbe [e.g. reduced attenuation of smallpox vaccine virus (9)]. Persons administering ACAM 2000 smallpox vaccine to laboratory and health care personnel at risk for occupational exposure to orthopoxviruses can decrease the risk for inadvertent infection through recommended infection prevention measures. However, because of a theoretical risk for infection, vaccination with ACAM2000 can be offered to health care personnel administering this vaccine, provided individual persons have no specified contraindications to vaccination (10).

Needles and syringes used for vaccine injections must be sterile and disposable. A separate needle and syringe should be used for each injection. Changing needles between drawing vaccine from a vial and injecting it into a recipient is not necessary unless the needle has been damaged or contaminated (11).

Bloodborne diseases (e.g., hepatitis B, hepatitis C, human immunodeficiency virus [HIV]) are occupational hazards for clinicians and other health-care providers. The Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act (2) was enacted in 2000 to reduce the incidence of needlestick injury and the consequent risk for bloodborne diseases acquired from patients. The act directed OSHA to strengthen its existing bloodborne pathogen standards. The revised standards became effective in 2001 (2). These federal regulations require the use of engineering and work practice controls to eliminate or minimize employee exposure to bloodborne pathogens. Engineering controls means controls (e.g., sharps disposal containers, self-sheathing needles, safer medical devices, such as sharps with engineered sharps injury protections and needleless systems) that isolate or remove the bloodborne pathogens hazard from the workplace). Needle-shielding or needle-free devices that might satisfy the occupational safety regulations for administering injectable vaccines are available in the United States (12-13). The regulations also require maintenance of records documenting injuries caused by needles and other medical sharp objects and that nonmanagerial employees be involved in the evaluation and selection of safety-engineered devices before they are procured. Additional information about implementation and enforcement of these regulations is available from OSHA.

To prevent inadvertent needlestick injury or reuse, safety mechanisms should be deployed after use and needles and syringes should be discarded immediately in labeled, puncture-proof containers located in the same room where the vaccine is administered (5). Used needles should never be recapped.

Routes of administration are recommended by the manufacturer for each immunobiologic (Table 6-1). With the exceptions of bacille Calmette-Gurin (BCG) vaccine and smallpox vaccine [ACAM2000] (both administered by the percutaneous route), injectable vaccines are administered by the intramuscular or subcutaneous route. The smallpox/monkeypox vaccine (Jynneos) is primarily administered by the subcutaneous route but in some circumstances is administered by the intradermal route. Deviation from the recommended route of administration might reduce vaccine efficacy (14-15) or increase the risk for local adverse reactions (16-18).

The method of administration of injectable vaccines is determined, in part, by the inclusion of adjuvants in some vaccines. An adjuvant is a vaccine component distinct from the antigen that enhances the immune response to the antigen, but might also increase risk of adverse reactions. To decrease risk of local adverse events, non-live vaccines containing an adjuvant should be injected into a muscle. Administering a vaccine containing an adjuvant either subcutaneously or intradermally can cause local irritation, induration, skin discoloration, inflammation, and granuloma formation.

Injectable immunobiologics should be administered where local, neural, vascular, or tissue injury is unlikely. Use of longer needles has been associated with less redness or swelling than occurs with shorter needles because of injection into deeper muscle mass (16). Appropriate needle length depends on age and body mass. Injection technique is the most important parameter to ensure efficient intramuscular vaccine delivery.

For all intramuscular injections, the needle should be long enough to reach the muscle mass and prevent vaccine from seeping into subcutaneous tissue, but not so long as to involve underlying nerves, blood vessels, or bone (15,19-22). Vaccinators should be familiar with the anatomy of the area into which they are injecting vaccine. Intramuscular injections are administered at a 90-degree angle to the skin, preferably into the anterolateral aspect of the thigh or the deltoid muscle of the upper arm, depending on the age of the patient (Table 6-2).

For the majority of infants, the anterolateral aspect of the thigh is the recommended site for injection because it provides comparatively larger muscle mass than the deltoid (Figure 2) (23). In certain circumstances (e.g., physical obstruction to other sites and no reasonable indication to defer doses), the gluteal muscle can be used. If the gluteal muscle must be used, care should be taken to define the anatomic landmarks.(a) For the majority of infants, a 1-inch needle is sufficient to penetrate the thigh muscle.

For toddlers, the anterolateral thigh muscle is preferred, and when this site is used, the needle should be at least 1 inch long. The deltoid muscle can be used if the muscle mass is adequate. If 2 vaccines are to be administered in a single limb, they should be spaced an inch apart (4, 24).

The deltoid muscle is preferred for adolescents 11-18 years of age. The anterolateral thigh can also be used. For injection into the anterolateral thigh, most adolescents will require a 1-1.5-inch needle to ensure intramuscular administration (27).

For adults, the deltoid muscle is recommended for routine intramuscular vaccinations (23) (Figure 3). The anterolateral thigh also can be used. When injecting into the deltoid muscle, for adults a measurement of body mass/weight is allowable prior to vaccination, understanding that resources to measure body mass/weight are not available in all clinical settings. For men and women who weigh 90 kg) or men who weigh >260 lbs (>118 kg), a 1.5-inch needle is recommended (table 6-2) (20). For injection into the anterolateral thigh muscle, a 1.5-inch needle should be used, although a 1-inch needle may be used if the skin is stretched tightly and subcutaneous tissues are not bunched.

Rotavirus, adenovirus, cholera vaccine, and oral typhoid vaccines are the only vaccines administered orally in the United States. Oral typhoid capsules should be administered as directed by the manufacturer. The capsules should not be opened or mixed with any other substance. Rotavirus vaccines are licensed for infants. There are 2 brands of rotavirus vaccine, and they have different types of applicators. Providers should consult package inserts for details.

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