? Drawing from lantus pen

i have heard that its ok to push insulin back into the pen, as in overdrawing into syringe and pushing excess back in, which helps get rid of any air bubbles and helps get an accurate dose.

I have also heard it is NOT ok to do this, that it can somehow pollute the insulin. I dont understand that reasoning, since all contact is sterile.

What are people's opinions here?

 

The problem is that most syringes have a silicone coating inside them to make the plungers glide easily. It's this coating which can be expelled back into the Lantus and contaminate it. It appears that Lantus is affected by this more than some of the other insulins.

 

You might want to check out this sticky on handling insulin. http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/...insulin-info-handling-drawing-fine-doses.151/

Here is part of it:

• Do not inject air into cartridges or pens. Cartridges and pens are designed to work on a negative pressure principle.

• If you draw up too much insulin in the syringe... squirt excess either into the air dramatically like they do on TV or into a paper towel... anywhere but back into vial/cartridge/pen. There is a silicon coating inside the syringe. It may contaminate the insulin vial with silicon.

 

If you use a vial, it's OK to push the air back into the vial. As Carla noted, you don't want to inject air or insulin back into the pen due to the negative pressure system. As you start to use the pen, you'll see a black plug that moves down the tube to keep the pressure constant.