A post about sterile water

[wedgewood]

I have deleted the posting because it is inadvisable to use this water for reconstituting powdered B12 .

[helvella]

I thought you were supposed to use saline for injections rather than water for injections when used with B12?

[wedgewood in reply to helvella]

So did I , until I saw this item , If you look it up on exchange supplies , it is described as “ Sterile water for injections “. Perhaps someone with better knowledge than me can inform us on this ?

[helvella in reply to wedgewood]

Does it depend on what is being injected? That is, for B12 should be saline but for heroin water is OK?

[wedgewood in reply to helvella]

I’ve no idea . Perhaps someone else does . There must be someone out there who will know . It doesn’t state for which purposes , just says “for injection “ .

[Foggyme Administrator in reply to wedgewood]

The ph in sterile normal saline is better for injection purposes. Sterile water is safe to inject but would sting - a lot.

However, we do not recommend using sterile normal saline or sterile water to mix with multi-dose ampoules of powdered methylcobalamin due to the potential for contamination associated with storing either for injection at a later stage (once opened both are no longer sterile and therefore not suitable for storing in this form for injecting into the body at a later date).

We always recommend medical grade single dose B12 ampoules for injections.

👍

[wedgewood in reply to Foggyme]

Thanks for that . Perhaps I should edit out that stuff I’ve put in the post ?

[fbirder in reply to Foggyme]

Water will sting, but not because of the pH. It's because saline is isosmotic with the contents of cells.

We all know the word 'osmosis' but might not know what it means.

If you have two solutions, separated by a semi-permeable membrane (one that will let water through but not larger molecules, or charged particles, to pass through) the water will pass through the membrane to make the concentration of the solutions the same of both sides of the membrane. That is osmosis.

The membranes of cells are semi-permeable, and the insides of cells have quite a bit of stuff dissolved in them. If you put cells into pure water then water passes across the cell membrane into the cell until the concentrations are the same. Or until the cell bursts.

That's why injecting pure water hurts - because it's making cells around the injection site explode.

[wedgewood in reply to fbirder]

Thanks for the explanation fbirder 👍

[Foggyme Administrator in reply to fbirder]

Exploding cells...now there's a happy thought 🤣

[deniseinmilden]

I know their website can be a bit awkward to use but Exchange Supplies are always excellent to deal with.

[Nackapan in reply to deniseinmilden]

Yes the search a bit awkward. And jumping around. I'm waiting fir my order so will see! First time used as medisave didn't have it all in stock at the moment.