- Intramuscular injections at home
- Preparation for the procedure
- How to make an injection in the buttock
- How to make a thigh injection
- How to make an injection in the shoulder
- Complications after intramuscular injections
- Abscess
- Necrosis
- Hematoma
- Needle breaking
- Anaphylactic shock
- Steps
- Warnings
- Intramuscular injection: how to do it right
- Forearm Injection: Subcutaneous Administration
- Injections in the arm: consequences
For intramuscular injections, it is not necessary to use the services of a nurse. Each person can perform the manipulation independently. The main thing is to follow the rules of asepsis and carefully follow the technique of the process. How to do injections at home?
Intramuscular injections at home
Only a doctor is responsible for administering injections. The specialist writes a prescription, which indicates the name injection drug , its dosage, duration of therapy. If the disease does not require a hospital stay, then the patient spends treatment at home.
Doctors do not recommend intravenous injections at home. The slightest mistake is fraught with serious consequences. For their use the services of a specialist.
Intramuscular injection is a simple manipulation that is easy to perform on your own. If a responsible approach to this process, then the help of a nurse is not required.
Preparation for the procedure
- Wash your hands thoroughly with antibacterial soap.
- Wear sterile gloves.
- Be sure to check the date of manufacture of the prescribed drug. It is forbidden to use expired medicine, even if the expiration date ended a couple of days ago. The use of such a tool is dangerous to health and life.
- Carefully inspect the ampoule. If sediment is noticed at the bottom, then discard such a medicine. Perhaps the storage conditions were not respected.
- Moisten cotton with 96% alcohol and wipe the ampoule by shaking it first. Then gently file the tip with a special blade and break the glass.
- Take a disposable syringe, put a needle on it. Draw the right amount of fluid without touching the walls of the ampoule.
- To release excess air, first tap the syringe barrel with your fingernail and then gently press the plunger until a drop of liquid appears at the end of the needle.
After the procedure, used items are thrown away, even if the manipulation is repeated for the same person. For each subsequent approach, only new, sterile disposable products are used.
How to make an injection in the buttock
This is the most popular area for intramuscular injection. When used, the likelihood of injury to the bone or damage to the sciatic nerve is minimal.
- Before manipulation, lay the patient on his side or on his stomach.
- You can stab in the right or left side . To accurately determine the injection site, visually divide the buttock into 4 equal parts. The injection site will be the upper outer quarter.
- Moisten cotton wool in alcohol and wipe the selected area.
- AT right hand take a syringe and pull the skin of the place where you are going to prick with your left. If the injection is given to a child, then this area is slightly squeezed into a crease.
- Now a crucial moment! First retract the syringe, and then quickly move it into the muscle at an angle of 90 °. Make sure that the needle does not fully enter, but only at ¾.
- To release the medicine, gradually press on the syringe plunger.
- When the fluid in the cylinder runs out, pull out the needle and immediately attach a cotton swab moistened with alcohol.
- Massage the affected muscle. This will speed up the absorption of the drug and prevent the formation of subcutaneous seals.
When a weekly course of injections is prescribed, try to alternate the buttocks. If you are new to this business, then do not save on syringes! In imported products, the needles are sharper and thinner.
How to make a thigh injection
Sometimes the drug is administered in buttock muscle complicated by the fact that the person is motionless and forced to constantly lie on his back. In this case, the injection is carried out into the lateral broad muscle, which is located along the center line of the thigh.
- First determine the injection site. For this, the leg from the knee to the hip joint is conditionally divided into three parts. Enter the medicine in the center of the middle lobe.
- Put on gloves and thoroughly clean the area with alcohol.
- To prevent damage to the periosteum, squeeze the skin slightly until wrinkled. Insert the needle at right angles sharply, but not completely (leave 2 mm above the surface).
- Now release the tightened skin and slowly apply pressure to the plunger.
- Quickly remove the needle and apply cotton wool moistened with alcohol.
No matter what part of the body was performed intramuscular injection The therapeutic effect occurs immediately after the drug enters the bloodstream.
How to make an injection in the shoulder
If it is not possible to inject into the buttock or thigh, then it is done into the deltoid muscle. It starts from the junction of the scapula and clavicle and stretches to the front of the forearm, forming a triangle. The injection is performed laterally to the center of muscle thickening in the upper surface of the shoulder.
- Before the procedure, ask the patient to strip to the waist or lower his clothes, exposing his shoulder and shoulder blade.
- Wipe the injection area with alcohol.
- Stretch your skin slightly, then insert the needle horizontally.
- When the drug is completely injected, remove the needle, squeeze the place with an alcohol cotton and massage gently.
The injection will be less painful if the patient is relaxed.
Complications after intramuscular injections
Infiltrate
Repeated injections into the same area often lead to the formation of local compaction under the skin. To alleviate the condition, doctors recommend using a warm heating pad.
Abscess
A common phenomenon that occurs when non-compliance with aseptic rules or performing manipulation with a short needle. First, inflammation forms, pain appears, the temperature rises, and then suppuration appears. For such symptoms, contact immediately.
Necrosis
Erroneous contact of certain substances under the skin causes tissue necrosis. Most often this occurs with the introduction of a 10% solution of calcium chloride. If the patient complains of severe pain, swelling or the formation of ulcers, blisters, then attach an ice pack to the affected area and immediately go to the hospital.
Hematoma
If a vessel was accidentally touched during an injection, a crimson stain appears at the injection site. Apply a warming compress to the resulting bruise.
Needle breaking
Sometimes the fear of an upcoming injection leads to the fact that a person has greatly contracted muscles. When you try to insert the needle into a tight place, it breaks. In such a situation, keep calm and do not show your already worried patient your excitement. The main thing is to act quickly and clearly.
First, pinch the injection site between the thumb and forefinger of your left hand and try to squeeze out the metal chip. When you see the tip on the surface, grab it with tweezers and pull it towards you. If two or three attempts have failed, immediately call an ambulance.
Anaphylactic shock
Sometimes entered medicine causes an instant allergic reaction, dangerous to human life. The patient's pulse slows down, his face and larynx swell. If you do not urgently provide medical care, then death is possible. To prevent this situation, never engage in self-designation!
To make the injection successful, carefully study all the nuances of its implementation. This is a simple manipulation that anyone can master.
A subcutaneous injection is an injection made directly into the fat layer under the skin (as opposed to an intravenous injection made directly into a vein). Due to the fact that subcutaneous injections give a more uniform and slower distribution of drugs than an intravenous injection, a subcutaneous injection is usually used to administer vaccines and medicines (for example, diabetics of the first type very often inject insulin). A prescription for medicines that should be given subcutaneously usually has detailed instructions how to do a subcutaneous injection. The instructions in this article are given only as an example, before you give an injection at home, contact your healthcare provider. Read the detailed instructions below.
Steps
Getting Ready for a Subcutaneous Injection
Medication Dose Fence
Making Subcutaneous Injection
- Give your child a task that is appropriate for his age, for example, to keep the needle cap after you take it off, “and when they are old enough”, let them take it off. I am glad that they are actively learning to take care of themselves and their health.
- For more information on intravenous injection visit the Patient Information Publication website at: http://www.cc.nih.gov/ccc/patient_education/pepubs/
- For a little pain relief, you can use an ice cube.
- To avoid bruising or a small scar at the injection site, press the injection site with a gauze or cotton and press for at least 30 seconds after removing the needle. Here is a magic trick for everyone who has daily injections. Let your child himself say whether he wants to press a cotton swab harder or weaker, but within the framework of “safe pressure”.
- Also alternate the injection sites between the injections on the legs, arms or body (from the left and right, front and back, bottom and top), so that you do not get an injection in the same place more than once every two weeks. Just follow the same sequence for 14 places and the injection sites will alternate automatically! Children love predictability. Or give them the opportunity to choose their own injection sites, write a list and cross out the injection sites.
- Press the injection site with gauze or cotton, this will prevent the needle from pulling the skin, which in turn will reduce the pain from the injection.
- If you have the Internet, see your medicine on the manufacturer’s website.
- For children, or anyone who needs pain relief, use Emla, tropical anesthesia, which is attached half an hour or an hour before the injection, using a Tegaderm patch.
Warnings
- Carefully read the labeling of the medicine and make sure that it is the medicine and the level of concentration that you need.
- Do not throw syringes and needles into ordinary rubbish, throw them only in an impenetrable container for sharp waste.
- If you use an ice cube to reduce pain, don’t apply it too much. This can lead to hypothermia and tissue damage, which in turn will reduce the absorption of the drug.
- Do not try to give any injections without consulting your doctor.
What do you need
- A reusable drug ampoule and a calibrated syringe, or a disposable refilled syringe
- Alcohol Wipes
- Small clean towel
- A small gauze napkin or cotton ball
- An impenetrable container for sharp objects (if not, you can use a syringe with a safety device for the needle)
- Sterile adhesive plaster
When emergency medical care is required, sometimes you have to give an injection yourself or another person in the arm. The procedure provides a quick route to the entry of a drug into the human body. If an intravenous administration of the drug should be performed by a specialist, then intramuscular as well as subcutaneous injections can be easily done without special qualifications.
Tip: no matter why and where you need to give an injection, an injection should be given only as prescribed by the doctor. However, when a procedure is urgently needed, you should know how to do it and what the process can turn into.
Intramuscular injection: how to do it right
- The place for intramuscular injection is the deltoid muscle (middle part of the upper shoulder) of the arm. Before the procedure, you should prepare:
- ampoule with solution;
- a syringe of the required volume;
- cotton swabs, pure alcohol for disinfection.


Important: in order to make an injection into the shoulder, the patient must lie on his side or sit comfortably, relaxing the muscles. With intramuscular injection, the needle is inserted at a right angle, but not completely, but two-thirds of its length.
Forearm Injection: Subcutaneous Administration
The subcutaneous solution diverges faster through the bloodstream due to the blood vessels that abound in the area of subcutaneous fat. However, the effect of the drug after the injection is much slower than with intravenous injection.
Preparation for subcutaneous injections and manipulations are similar to those when administered intramuscularly. The only difference is that where it is required to give an injection, the skin is not stretched, but is collected with fingers like a triangular fold. In this case, the needle is inserted with a slope of 45 degrees into the skin fold itself, correctly - its base.
Important: you should know that the deltoid muscle of the arm is not particularly developed, so it will be more accurate to inject a small amount of medication. Due to the ramified system of blood vessels and the abundance of nerve endings, an injection is dangerous with serious complications.
Injections in the arm: consequences
Most often in top part hands put injections of hormonal drugs, you can also do some vaccinations, for example, against tetanus, diphtheria, flu. At the injection site, a seal usually appears, accompanied by redness. If vaccination is carried out in compliance with all the rules, then the phenomenon is temporary.

Why does an arm sore after infusion of a medicinal substance:
- The appearance of infiltrate at the site of vaccination, accompanied by pain and compaction, is associated with:
- with inaccuracy in determining the injection site;
- with repeated hit of a needle in the places of the previous infusions;
- with the wrong choice of needle - short or not sharp.
The iodine grid at the vaccination site and a light massage or an appeal to physiotherapy methods will help to cope with the problem.

