Harm reduction behind bars: Prison-based needle and syringe programs By Emily van der Meulen and Sandra Ka Hon Chu HIV and hepatitis C are serious public health issues in Canadian prisons. Rates of these infections in federal institutions are considerably higher than in the general population. The Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) currently provides prisoners with condoms, methadone maintena...

The incidence of epidural needle-induced post-dural puncture headache (PDPH) in parturients following dural puncture with a large bore (18-gauge) needle has been reported to range 76-85%. We describe seven cases in which the performance of epidural anesthesia in parturients was complicated by an unintentional dural puncture with an 18-gauge epidural needle. In all seven cases, the unintentional...

Drug use is an alarming problem in Bangladesh. An estimated 1.7 million people are drug users in the country (1). Injecting drug users present a tremendous potential for an HIV epidemic due to their needle-sharing habits, while non-injecting drug users are also prone to spread/ receive HIV infection through their unsafe sexual behaviour. Several studies have reported needle/syringe-sharing habi...

Needle-free injection devices (NFIDs) have been available for humans since the 1930s. Their implementation in the swine industry has been slow because of the low cost and ease of use of needle-syringe injection. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in needle-free devices in swine due to two main factors: immunology research, indicating that targeting dendritic cells in the skin and the s...

While practicing anesthesia in developing and underdeveloped countries, it is important to consider not only the quality of anesthesia but also the cost-effectiveness. I read the article by Singh et al. where the author mentions cost-effective indigenous drug delivery system for nerve blocks.[1] The mentioned technique is an attempt and concentrated mainly on cost-effectiveness. We do regularly...

Gonadotrophins are injected daily over several days in follicular stimulation protocols. To facilitate self-injection, various injection or reconstitution devices are available. It was investigated whether injection training enabled patients to choose their preferred device. Patients and their partners received nurse-led training about: powdered urofollitropin (Bravelle) with needle-free recons...

We designed a specially designed coaxial spinneret in this study. The inner stainless-steel needle was connected to the inner plastic syringe just like the traditional one. The outer stainless-steel needle was replaced by a plastic nozzle, and connected to the outer plastic syringe. The tip of the inner stainless-steel needle was shortened 2 cm from the tip of the outer plastic nozzle. This str...

Background: Apart from reducing occupational exposure to cytotoxic hazards, the PhaSeal® closed-system transfer device (CSTD) can extend the beyond-use dates (BUDs) of unfinished vials of antineoplastic drugs for up to 168 hours (seven days). In this study, the total material cost incurred by its use in a Malaysian government-funded hospital was calculated. Methods: A list of vial stability fol...

The procedure is done under local anaesthesia. Position of the enlarged bladder is confirmed by percussion. The skin is prepared as for a standard suprapubic cystostomy, and 2% lignocaine is infiltrated in the midline 2 cm above the pubic symphysis. Using a number 11 blade a vertical cut 1-2 cm in length is made in the midline. The incision is deepened and a small cut is made in the rectus shea...

Aspirations or Jamshidi needle biopsies (n = 287) of bone marrow were performed on children and adolescents with acute leukemia or other malignant disease following the use of a spring-loaded instrument that delivered local anesthetic in a jet spray; 89% of the patients were receiving chemotherapy, 12% were thrombocytopenic, and 23% of the 269 patients who were afebrile at the time of the proce...