Endocrine Abstracts

Proper insulin injection technique is a prerequisite for achieving good diabetes control, reducing absorption variability, and getting the best effect from using the drug. At the same time, the rate of absorption of insulin depends on a number of technical features, which include the depth of needle insertion, the severity of blood flow and the presence of lipodystrophy in the injection zones. Compliance with a number of rules minimizes the variability of absorption of insulin and is a necessary condition for achieving their optimal therapeutic effect. However, a significant part of patients receiving insulin therapy, makes many serious mistakes that can lead to decompensation of diabetes and the formation of vascular complications. The aim of our study was to analyze the technical aspects of insulin therapy in patients with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, and to study the awareness of patients about the technique of insulin injections and identify the most common errors.The study involved 74 patients (30 men and 44 women) aged from 20 to 76 years. A special questionnaire consisting of 38 questions was used to assess patients’ knowledge of technical issues of insulin therapy and to determine the most common errors encountered during insulin injections.According to the results obtained, the quality of insulin injection devices for 53 patients (72%) used pen-injectors, 21 (28%) used disposable syringes. The most widely used for injector – pens were needles with a length of 8 mm — 19 (36%) and 10 mm — 14 (26%) patients. The frequency of changing disposable needles was also analyzed, it turned out that 20 (38%) patients changed needles 1 time in 3 days, 21 (39%) - once a week, 9 (17%) - once every 2 weeks and 3 (6%) - 1 time per month. The questionnaire took into account data on the preferential use of ‘favorite’ zones for injections: 56 patients (76%) performed injections within one and two anatomical areas and only 6 (8%) used all the main anatomical areas. Analyzing the results, we concluded that patients with diabetes are not sufficiently informed about the technique of insulin injection and make a number of serious errors that can lead to a deterioration of carbohydrate metabolism. Proper insulin injection techniques are necessary for optimal control of diabetes mellitus, and therefore, injection techniques should be under the control of medical professionals and deserve special attention when educating patients at the School of Diabetes.