Dosage forms of insulin and how to use it

This is an automatically translated article.

Posted by Pharmacist Nguyen Van Thang - Faculty of Pharmacy - Vinmec Times City International General Hospital

Insulin plays an important role in the body's metabolism of sugar, fat, and protein. In some cases, patients have to supplement insulin from outside. Currently, insulin is made in 3 forms: vials, pre-packed pens, and small tubes.

1. What is insulin? What is the role of insulin?

Insulin is a substance secreted by the body's pancreas that helps lower blood sugar levels.
After each meal, blood sugar often rises, stimulating the pancreas to increase insulin secretion. Secreted insulin increases the transport of sugar into the cells for use by the cells. At the same time, insulin also helps move blood sugar into the liver and forms a storage form called glycogen. This stored form will be converted back to sugar (glucose) when blood sugar levels drop or under stimulation by other substances in the body.
In addition to its effect on sugar metabolism, insulin also affects fat and protein metabolism. When there is a lack of insulin, the body cannot use sugar, so it will use fats and proteins instead. From there, it leads to metabolic disorders such as increasing the amount of fatty acids in the blood (causing blood fat), increasing protein breakdown, creating metabolic products that are toxic to the body at high concentrations (ketones).

Thus, insulin plays an important role in stabilizing blood sugar as well as metabolic cycles of the body. A partial or complete deficiency of insulin leads to dysfunction and, therefore, may require the use of external insulin to rebalance the body's activities.

2. Dosage forms of insulin and how to use it

2.1. Dosage forms of insulin For external insulin supplementation, injectable insulin and inhaled insulin can be used. In Vietnam market, only injectable insulin is available.
With injectable insulin, there are 3 forms of use:
Insulin vial: insulin comes in a glass vial (usually 10ml), the user must use a syringe to remove insulin from the vial before each injection. Pre-packed, monolithic pen insulin: insulin is contained in the body of an "injection pen" and the user simply attaches the tip of the needle and selects the injection dose before injecting. When the insulin in the pen body is used up, it is discarded and cannot be reused. Insulin cartridge (cartridge) with pen: insulin comes in small tubes of about 3ml. When used, the tube will be attached to an empty injection pen body to become an "injection pen" similar to a pre-packed pen. The main difference from the monolithic form is that it can replace the "gut" containing insulin each time it runs out, the pen case will usually be reused within about 2 years. Of the three types above, vial insulin and monolithic, pre-packed insulin are common, and cartridges can also be found on the market, but are not common and do not have many options.
With vial insulin:

Pre-filled, monolithic injection pen:
A. PREPARATION

B. PEN TRIAL AND inject drugs

* Small tube (cartridge) with pen: after attaching the vial to the injection pen, do the same as the pre-packed, monolithic injection pen.
Note: The above recommendations are recommendations for general use, in fact, depending on the type of pen, the manufacturer may have some slight differences in usage. If you have any questions, please contact your doctor, pharmacist for timely answers.

3. Precautions when using insulin dosage forms

- There are many different types of insulin, so it is important to know exactly what type of insulin you are using. You can refer to the types of insulin in the article.
- Choose the right dose to inject as prescribed by the doctor.
- Inject the medicine at the right time, in the right way according to the doctor/pharmacist's instructions.
- Do not skip meals after insulin injection.
If you are suspecting you have diabetes or already have diabetes and want to prevent dangerous complications caused by this disease, please contact Vinmec International General Hospital. Currently, the hospital is providing 2 service packages: Diabetes screening package, dyslipidemia and Diabetes outpatient management package - Hyperlipidemia helps patients detect health problems early. related to diabetes and managing its complications.

Please dial HOTLINE for more information or register for an appointment HERE. Download MyVinmec app to make appointments faster and to manage your bookings easily.