How bad are air bubbles in pens?

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Lewy

Lewy

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Are they bad to have, can it harm me if I inject with air bubble by accident? Onto my second Apidra pen and its got a big old Air Bubble sitting quietly. It's probably a silly question but I'd rather know either way if someone wouldn't mind answering please 😱
 
I've never personally had this problem, but I would think the biggest problem would be that you might not inject your full dose if you inject the air bubble. I don't think the air would harm you as it's only a subcutaneous injection - but I'm happy to be corrected by someone who knows better!

Can you try and get rid of it with 'airshots'? Or use another pen?
 
NOT A DOC but would`nt a bubble in the pen leave you open to injecting a bubble into your blood stream and that would be fatal
 
Hi Lewy.

I used to get rid of air bubbles religiously when using a syringe, but with the pen I tend to worry less because you have the needle inside the cartridge which tends to stop it from going up the needle and into you. I think the main worry was on the grounds of getting the right dose, rather than the air doing any harm. You'd need a fair bit more to cause you damage.

Hope this helps.

Rob

ps. if you get bored, it can be quite fun to try and get the air to go up the needle and expelled.
 
It actually takes quite a bit of air for it to be fatal. So even if you were to accidentally hit a blood vessel, you still wouldn't harm yourself. You can get rid of bubbles by knocking the air to the top and squirting it out. I just get them out of the way because my lantus pens always seem to have bubbles in them!
 
If you do get air bubbles is it the flick the pen till they go situation?
 
williammcd said:
NOT A DOC but would`nt a bubble in the pen leave you open to injecting a bubble into your blood stream and that would be fatal
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Had to change my pants after reading this, thanks for clearing that up Northerner 😛

Tried getting it out with air shots but no success, so I'm pretty confident that it will be fine until I get right down to the final few units. And at the point I can just chuck it without the risk I guess :confused:
 
Lewy said:
Had to change my pants after reading this, thanks for clearing that up Northerner 😛

Tried getting it out with air shots but no success, so I'm pretty confident that it will be fine until I get right down to the final few units. And at the point I can just chuck it without the risk I guess :confused:
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you have to flick it pretty hard to get the bubbles right to the top. i usually give up and, like you said, chuck the cartridge away with the bit of insulin and bubbles left.
 
Not sure whether the bubbles are worse in prefilled pens, but there's usually enough 'spare' left after the end line on cartridges to avoid much risk of injecting any air, especially if you hold the pen sort of upright and tap once or twice before injecting.
 
that's what i do 😉 my pre-filled lantus pens always have a big bubble in them
 
Yep, I've got a big bubble (that floats from end to end when I move the pen around) in my Lantus cartridge at the moment. I'm not concerned about it as I inject at a 90 degree angle so the bubble is always going to be at the opposite end to the needle.
 
shiv said:
Yep, I've got a big bubble (that floats from end to end when I move the pen around) in my Lantus cartridge at the moment. I'm not concerned about it as I inject at a 90 degree angle so the bubble is always going to be at the opposite end to the needle.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised - haven't had a bubble in any of my cartridges! I'll probably get them in every one after saying that 😱
 
I've never had a small monkey/chimp in my pen, but I have had air pockets/bubbles! Never worried about it, still not worried about it, never tried to get rid of, but sounds like a good game!

Lewy - never a stupid question mate always ask, we can all learn!

Cheers

Rossi
 
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