Abstract
Purpose: :
Small volumes of intraocular drugs are used to treat a variety of conditions including endophthalmitis, neovascular glaucoma and pathologic anterior segment neovascularization. Most commonly, small volumes of medications are injected into the vitreous to treat retinal and choroidal neovascularization along with macular edema. The purpose of our study was to investigate the reproducibility and accuracy of six brands of syringes used for intraocular drug delivery.
Methods: :
Six brands of 1-mL syringes were used to perform 600 injections at 0.05 mL and 600 injections at 0.10 mL. 10 injections of distilled water at each volume using 10 syringes from each brand were delivered onto an analytical balance. Volume was extrapolated by the mass of water delivered. A Pipetman served as a control.
Results: :
A one-way ANOVA with a post-hoc Tukey test compared the delivered volume of each brand to one another and to the intended volumes. At 0.05mL, BD Luer-lok and Kendall MONOJECT syringes significantly vary from each other in the volume delivered. Also, the MONOJECT statistically over-delivered from this intended volume [mean 0.0515 mL]. At 0.10 mL, similar analysis reveals all brands vary from each other and that MONOJECT, McKesson, and EXELint deliver volumes which significantly differ from the intended. The McKesson [mean 0.104 mL] and EXELint [mean 0.102 mL] over-deliver whereas the MONOJECT syringes under-deliver [mean 0.0955 mL]. Another one-way ANOVA and post-hoc Tukey test was done to investigate intrasyringe variability. At 0.05 mL, syringes within BD TB, BD Luer-lok, and EXELint all varied significantly. At 0.10 mL, the syringes within BD TB, BD Luer-lok, EXELint, and MONOJECT brands also varied from one another. A between-within ANOVA revealed no significant variation between the 10 outputs of each syringe within all brands at either volume.