Accidental needle sticks during allergy treatment

Monday, 15 February 2010 03:03

Injection of adrenaline must be administered quickly to prevent or reverse life-threatening respiratory symptoms and anaphylactic shock during a severe allergic reaction. For this reason, it is recommended that those people who are susceptible to such reactions carry adrenaline auto-injectors at all times. However, proper training in the use of the auto-injectors is not always provided, and unintentional injections of people other than the patient have been known to happen. A recent study looked at just how frequently this occurs.

The study authors reviewed reports of unintentional injections made to U.S. Poison Control Centers from 1994 to 2007, plus reports made to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from 1969 to 2007. From this data, it appears that the number of such unintentional injections is increasing, with more than 15,000 unintentional injections reported to the Poison Control Centers during the period studied. As it is unlikely that all unintentional injections are reported, the study authors believe the total numbers will be even higher. They also found the annual rate has increased steadily, especially between 2003 and 2007.

Most of the unintentional injections occurred to the fingers and thumbs of those attempting to administer the injection to the patient, and although adverse outcomes were not reported in a consistent manner in the original reports, serious injury appears to have been rare. The study findings indicate that improved training in the use of adrenaline auto-injectors is critical and in addition, the pharmaceutical industry is being encouraged to improve the design of the auto-injectors.

Reference: Simons et al. 2010. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Vol 125(2) pp 419.