ESPE Abstracts (2015) 84 P-3-710

ESPE2015 Poster Category 3 Diabetes (94 abstracts)

How Approprıate are the Lengths of Syringe Needles Used for Subcutaneous Injections to the Children at School Age

Sultan Kaba , Murat Doğan , Keziban Bulan , Alpaslan Yavuz , Aydın Bora , Muazzez Didin , İlyas Dündar & Nihat Demir


Yuzuncu Yil University, Van, Turkey


Aims: To define the normal ranges of the thicknesses of the skin and subcutaneous tissues via ultrasonography, and to determine whether the current syringe needle-lengths used for the subcutaneous injections were appropriate.

Methods: The thicknesses of the skin and subcutaneous tissues of 2 244 students were measured at the left arm using ultrasonography. Patients were divided into three groups based on age: 6–8, 9–12 and 13–17 year.

Results: The thicknesses of the skin, subcutaneous tissue and skin-subcutaneous tissue were found to be positively correlated with age, BMI and body surface area. All these were observed to be gender related. There is a possibility to make intramuscular injections for the 50, 25 and 25% of boys with age groups of 6–8, 9–12 and 13–17 year respectively. For the girls, the risk of intramuscular injection is 25% for all age groups.

Conclusions: Our study has shown that the skin and skin-subcutaneous tissue thicknesses varies as a function of age, gender, BMI and body surface area.

Article tools

My recent searches

No recent searches.