I messed up Stelara injection

[Jandersen20]

I inserted the needle into my son’s leg and when I pushed the plunger down all this liquid came up and pooled on his leg. I removed the needed and reinserted to complete the injection. Quite a bit of liquid was pooled on top of his leg and I would say he only got about 1/2 of the dose. I’m upset and was wondering what we should do. I’ve left messages for his doc so waiting. Has this happened to anyone else?

 

[Scipio]

It has not happened to me. I inject under the skin over my abdomen. That has always seemed easiest to me.

I suggest that you ask the doc whether he has a spare dose in his office that he can give you? Docs sometimes have a few free samples from the drug companies. Stelara is such an obscenely expensive drug that your insurance company may push back against paying for an extra dose.

 

[my little penguin]

Never had that happen with DS
He gets his in the outside of the thigh under the skin -45 degree angle -he bruises too easily around the stomach
Arms have scar tissue from allergy shots for too many years and tend to hives up when anything is injected there now

When you say puddle up ?
Was there a bubble under the skin of fluid from the Stelara or was the Stelara sitting above the skin. ??

Definitely see what Gi has to say

 

[Delta_hippo]

I asked the other half who used to give a lot of injections when he was a mental health nurse. He says if the needle doesn’t go in far enough then you can get a pool of liquid under the skin like a bubble. If the liquid was on top of the skin all he can think is faulty syringe. Definitely right to tell the doc, I wonder if they will want to bring forward next dose

 

[Scipio]

If it was a bubble under the skin then it will still get into his system. It will just likely take a little longer to get absorbed.

One of the problems GIs report with sub-cutaneous home injection (versus IV infusion) is the variable rate of drug absorption - brought on not only by bobbled injections such as this one but also by the amount of subcutaneous fat tissue present. Obese patients often take longer to absorb the drug into their blood.

 

[Jandersen20]

Never had that happen with DS
He gets his in the outside of the thigh under the skin -45 degree angle -he bruises too easily around the stomach
Arms have scar tissue from allergy shots for too many years and tend to hives up when anything is injected there now

When you say puddle up ?
Was there a bubble under the skin of fluid from the Stelara or was the Stelara sitting above the skin. ??

Definitely see what Gi has to say

Stelara was sitting on top of skin.

 

[Jandersen20]

Thanks all for your replies. The liquid pooled on top of the skin as I pressed the plunger down. It was like a little puddle on top. I took out the needle and reinserted and continued pressing the plunger down to release the remaining medication. I would say he only got about 1/2 to 3/4 of the dose. I’m still waiting for the doctor to call back. I just don’t want this to impede with the results we’re having.
Thank you

 

[Maya142]

You can also call Stelara - I assume they have some sort of patient support like other biologics do. We've had that happen twice with auto-injectors where they don't fully deploy and some of the medication leaks out but Stelara is in a regular pre-filled syringe, right?

In both cases the companies that made the medication - AbbVie for Humira (can't remember what the other one was, possibly a Simponi pen, so Janssen) replaced the dose but wanted the auto-injectors/pens that misfired back to see what was wrong.
It sounds like maybe the syringe wasn't inserted deeply enough? Or perhaps it was barely inserted?

How old is your son? Sometimes it's actually easier to give yourself a shot. I used to do MTX shots for my daughter and after she started doing them herself, she actually found them less painful because she knew exactly how much pressure to put (i.e. "Mom pokes me too hard"). She started doing her own shots at 13.