reusable syringes

[tangent]

reading a WHO document on reusable vs disposable syringes. Some notes:

reusable syringes are now available in plastic (sterilizable). This is a good thing, if you can find them!

Disposable plastic syringes and needles can be steam sterilized, but melt, somewhat... Trying to sterilize them with disinfectant does not work.

A study in one country found that cultures could be grown off of swabs from just sterilized reusable syringes and needles fresh out of the sterilizer 40% of the time. This was reduced to 0% by the introduction of training (needles should be sterilized upright), trays to hold them that way, and autoclave tape (time-steam saturation-temperature (TST) indicator that would turn color after >20 minutes at 121 deg C. Pressure cookers work just fine...

one study estimated the life cycle of reusable syrenges at 200 uses and needles at 50 uses. I personally think this is very consurvative. Using hard water in a sterilizer SIGNIFICANTLY reduces this life cycle. (not to mention leaving deposits on the sterilizer and the resultant breakdown and repair costs/effort)

disposable syringes create a disposal problem. Current estimants are that it costs as mutch to dispose of a needle as it costs to buy it.

most puncture injuries are caused when the care giver tries to put the disposable cap back on the needle to make it safer...

reusable syringes are mutch more cost effective in the long run.

[tangent]

J Trop Med Hyg 1990 Apr;93(2):119-20 Related Articles, Books


Sterilization of syringes and needles for immunization programmes using a pressure cooker.

Balraj V, Sridharan G, John TJ.

Department of Virology and Microbiology, Christian Medical College Hospital, Vellore, Tamilnadu, India.

Pressure cookers are being widely used for sterilizing equipment in small clinics and hospitals and under 'field conditions' in developing countries, especially in India. In the literature there is no report on testing of pressure cookers (PC) to determine if they sterilize adequately. The use of PC for a 15-min 'holding time' after steam starts to emanate from under the weight is quite satisfactory by standard efficacy testing methods for autoclaves.

PMID: 2325192 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[Reasonable Rascal]

Reusable syringes also go a long ways towards ensuring that you will have some available when needed. Imagine if you will having to bug out, carrying what you can. A box of 100 disposables, or a couple reusables and different sized needles to meet the situation?

One former military medic told me a couple years ago he still carried the same 20 cc glass syringe his father used all through his tour as a medic in "Nam. Suction and irrigation and if need be injection in one package.

1 glass insulin syringe and a large handful of needles would last a diabetic 1 - 1 1/2 years of regular use. Many reuse plastic ones now several times but may go through a couple hundred per year even then. Properly cared for they make sense.

RR

[tangent]

I will temper this w/ the comment that you need a autoclave/pressure cooker to reuse that syrings safely. HOWEVER! that autoclave, while being heavier and bigger than 100 syringes, is good for SO much more, (including cooking dinner - w/ min fuel usage!) Still, I have packed stuff for 20 miles on foot w/ a 2,000 ft altitude gain on a regular basis and a pressure cooker would not be my first choice for mass... but it's WORTH IT! your great grand kids will probably still be using a well made one, while a box of reusables will last you a year max!

[tangent]

non-disposable syringes stand up better to repeated sterilization
than disposables. Good non-disposables can be made to last a lifetime.
The plain glass ones can be sterilized using boiling water. Of course,
sterilization of the syringes is relatively easy. The needles cause
problems,
however. Be sure to have a couple of spare hypo wires - the little wires
you put inside the needle - and use one only for before washing and
a separate one for after washing. The after wash pass throughs dry the
bore of the needle - otherwise it can rust - this works better than just
blowing air through the needles. (Note that disposable needles don't
come with hypo wires - you need to look for a non-single use needle set).
The nondisposables resharpen better, too, as they were made to do just
that.

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You can steralize the whole thing in a pressure cooker.It works just as good as
an autoclave,just does not look as professional.If you want to get fancy you
can buy autoclave bags that change color at any well stocked pharmacy.To
steralize in a pressere cooker you need to make a rack that sits above the
water.I just took one of those things you make fries in and broke off the
handle. At the altitude I'm at I cooked the needles for a half hour.You need to
find the right time for where you are.Thats where the bags could be handy as
they change color when the needles are done.

PS...just boiling in water or wipeing with alcohol does not steralize
needles!!!!!!
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This was a most exelant article but I must dissagre with one point:The covered
container should be filled with Zepheren Chloride solution.Also further on
where the article say store needles in alcohol,again I say use the solution I
just mentioned.It can be purchased at a pharmacy by the gallon for not much
more than distilled water and has the added bennifit in that it will also
sterilize needles if they are left in it for 72 hours.Technically,if you had a
sonic cleaner which bassically just vibrates the dirt off(I have seenthese at
thriftstores for $5) and then put them in the solution for a few days they will
be ready for use.
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<Snip>I suspect from this we are considering two different situations. I am
presuming
a long term/major disruption in which access to commercial sterilants is, at
least, restricted. You are not. If you can get zephiran chloride, that's great.
In particular, its low reactivity with stainless steel is wonderful for needles
or any other metal implement. Nothing I say about austere operations is
intended to preclude the use of appropriate advanced techniques where
resources allow. Under the conditions I was considering, however, EtOH
would likely be the most widely available sterilant.