Links on multiple lancet use?

[Ellie]

Hi guys,
have a question here.
I believe there were some studies into whether it is safe to use blood lancet more than once in the same individual. Who knows any related links? TIA

[bel4_20]

TRY HERE---> www.google.com (http://) You should find some suff there.

[duck]

I go months between changes, no problems so far. However, I test on my forearms, and they don't come into contact with things as much as my fingertips, obviously...

[daddyo]

I'm with Duck, twice a year maybe, never had a problem in about 44,000 test give or take a few.

[CarlyesHope]

Really guys???

Carlye uses a new lancet every time, do you think this is silly? I wondered it the hospital was being overly cautious.

[duck]

Really guys???

Carlye uses a new lancet every time, do you think this is silly? I wondered it the hospital was being overly cautious.

It's not being silly, but many of us have found the "hospital" advice to be a bit rigorous. Some of us on MDI have re-used syringes. At least when you do it the hospital way, you have very, very little chance of infection.

[james kirk]

i use the same one until it won't go in likewise i use the same syringe till it won't...a child needs to change more often...my endo told me that if your bodies clean it shouldn't matter...don't forget the hospitals and drug companies are in bed together and tell us things that increase their profits...30 years a T1 and 0 infections

[ksa01]

I use a new lancet every time. On the very rare occassions when I haven't used a new lancet, I bruised and the area was sore. Because of this, I believe the claims and magnified pictures showing the burrs that develop with each use making it dull. Besides, lancets are cheap. Using a new lancet every time, definately isn't silly. It's just a personal preference--to each his own.

[Erin]

My record was a year between changing lancets. Now I change every month or so. 16 years and no problems yet.

[jeggeman31]

Hi guys,
have a question here.
I believe there were some studies into whether it is safe to use blood lancet more than once in the same individual. Who knows any related links? TIA

I change each stick. My insurance provides me with 700 for 90 days so why not use them.

[Erin]

Because it's fun to be able to say you have a 15,000 year supply of lancets!



In all honesty, it's 3 parts laziness and 1 part comfort, i think slightly used lancets actually hurt less.

[DeusXM]

I usually change lancets every couple of months or so - there's really no point changing them any more often.

Usually change needles with every cartridge, so usually every two weeks - I'm on MDI.

[Peter Lee]

When I started in this fun world last December, my diabetes nurse told me I could use the same lancet (as long as I was the only user) until it didn't work any more or until it hurt (same difference really!).

I find it nice to change after every two to three uses and haven't had any problems with infections or bad healing so far :king:

[daddyo]

In all honesty, it's 3 parts laziness and 1 part comfort, i think slightly used lancets actually hurt less.


I agree new lancets seem to hurt more. With neorapathy in my hands and feet I can feel the new ones, but not the old.

[Ellie]

Well the problem is I need "official" or "medical" acknowlegement of it being safe. So any links to studies that confirm no higher frequency of infections etc. when lancets or pen nnedles are used more than once (in the same individual) would be appreciated.
In our country (Ukraine) kids with diabetes received test strips from the government for the first time in 2005. Each child received a BG meter, 200 test strips and 200 lancets in January. Initially we were said it was meant as a year's suuply.
Now there are news that the same amounts of strips and lancets are about to be financed (presumably for the second half of the year). It's great news for us except that with most of previously received lancets still untouched, the financing would be much better spent for more strips than for more lancets. We were going to contact the Ministry of Health in Kiev and coax them into spending less for lancets and more for test strips, so any scientific evidence to support our point of view might be helpful.

[duck]

Wow, Ellie I doubt you will find an official study only because WHEN the study concludes that you do NOT need a new lancet each time, the lancet company would lose money. And if it involves losing money in the West, it doesn't happen. :(

[CarlyesHope]

I agree, I just went into my college's library database and seached .org, and .edu's and nothing came up about re-use of lancets. Too much concern over cross contamination. Seems like everyone favors caution over saving money - why risk infection for a few cents, a dime, a quarter (not my theory, theirs)??

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, but good luck.

Kelly

[liz32]

I can't believe what I'm reading! A year without changing lancets? Yulk! That honestly is the most unsanitary thing I have ever heard. I change mine every time. If I'm stuck I may use it twice. I can't imagine going days on the same one let alone months. I know it all about personal opinions but there are so many microbs and other things microscopic that like to eat blood that it's gross to think of using a lancets that long. It's just my two cents worth, but with all that I have to deal with with diabetes, getting an infection from lancets is just one more thing that I don't want to deal with. I'm glad that you guys haven't gotten ill yet.

[UpNorth]

I'm using my 3rd or 4th lancet since diagnose nearly 8 months ago. Only reason i changed to the one i have now is because i got a new lancet device (accu-chek softclix) in february and my old lancet cannot be used in a softclix, my old lancet device is a medisense one... Anyways, have been using the same lancet since february now :whistling Never had a problem with it :) Just wash my hands b4 testing. And it hurts way less than a new lancet. Had to use a new one (and it was one of them evil hospital ones) last night at the ER and that made my favourite spot unusable (is that a word?) for the whole day- that finger is really sore still, and it's been almost 24h :(

[DeusXM]

I know it all about personal opinions but there are so many microbs and other things microscopic that like to eat blood that it's gross to think of using a lancets that long.

There's also an interesting counterargument that points out that exposure to these sorts of things is beneficial to the immune system because it enables you to develop a resistance to them.

There's a very good reason why asthma and allergy rates have rocketed in the last 20 years or so, which also has coincided with the huge step-up in hygeine we now bestow on our children.

Logically though, if you think about it, the only place that lancet has been is in your skin anyway, so any microbes that would actually survive the several hour gap on the tip of the lancet would have come from you in the first place, which means you couldn't catch an infection from them because you'd already have those microbes in you anyway.

[Ellie]

DeusXM, I agree. Throughout 13 years of my son's diabetes, it was only two times that he developed infection problems with his fingertips which I strongly doubt was from re-used lancets, rather from playing around with a "fresh" fingerprick. All those infections were back in his toddler years. Now he is 14 he does not care to change his lancet or syringe more often than once a month or so but as long as it does not seem to bring him to any harm, why not? He has too many other problems to cope with. Other kids here are also long "trained" to re-use lancets and, especially, pen needles because of very short supply of needles received from the government.

[bac4uw]

I don't think I've ever even had a prescription for lancets -- I figure the 10 they give me with a meter will last me the life of the meter. In six years with T1, I think I've changed lancets four times. At least one time, it was because I tested my brother-in-law and I didn't want to creep him out using the same lancet.

I've never had a problem... my hands are clean, the lancet is still sharp... it works for me!

Bryan

[Zokes]

I bought a box of lancets with my first meter back in 1988. Still have 98 of the original 100.

The cross contamination issues don't apply if one person is using it. I imagine I encounter more "disgusting microbes" washing my hands in a public restroom than I do reusing lancets for months on end.

Unfortunately, it seems clinical evidence does not exist to support the non-issue of lancet reuse.

[ang]

i was once a firm believer in the one use per lancet ... until i started on the pump. i was testing more then ten times a day some days and changing the lancet everytime just got plain annoying! now i change my lancet every two to three days or so and i haven't noticed any changes (both in comfort level or infection). i guess it all boils down to personal choice and circumstance. as far as lobbying the government for a change i don't know what to tell you. good luck.

[am1977]

Gosh, I can't remember the last time I changed my lancet :eek: :confused:

[Middle Aged Man]

The local hospital is giving us newbies to diabetes classes in how to handle the condition. Nurses and dietiticians specializing in diabetes treatment teach the class, which is 4 sessions of 4 hours each (I'm through the first two sessions). They told us to be sure to change your lancet at least once a day.

[jeggeman31]

Nurses and dietiticians specializing in diabetes treatment teach the class, They told us to be sure to change your lancet at least once a day.

I don't think there is a real response to this. As my Nurse and dietiticians told me every 6 sticks it should be changed. My ENDO said each stick and my regular DR told me whenever I feel the need to change it. :nurse: