Asian Journal Of Social Pharmacy

Abstract: Objective To evaluate the effectiveness and safety of insulin pen-line syringe with different lengths for diabetic patients and to provide references for the optimal choice of the needles. Methods A systematic review was used to have a retrieval of the published literatures. Results and Conclusion A total of 11 literatures were studied on the effectiveness. Among the 7 studies involving HbA1c, one study suggested that the short needle was better than the long, and others showed there was no difference between the long and the short needles. For the safety of the insulin pen-like syringe, a total of 21 literatures (including 23 studies) were studied. Five studies involving intramuscular injection indicated that the short needle was better than the long needle. Among the 16 studies involving the insulin leakage, one (6.25%) study showed the short needle was superior to the long, and two (12.5%) studies indicated the short needle was inferior to the long one. Others showed they had no significant difference. There were 6, 9 and 6 studies on the hypoglycemia, bleeding and bruising respectively, 33.33% of the studies showed the short needle were better, the others suggested no difference. There is no difference between insulin pen-like syringes with different length in effectiveness. In terms of safety, most studies pointed out that there was no difference between the different length needles. However, nearly a third of the studies proved that the short needle was better than the long one for intramuscular injection.

Key words: diabetes, insulin pen-like syringe, needle type, safety, effectiveness