IRELAND: The drugs don't work-what a bummer

DUBLIN (Irishhealth.com), November 29, 2005: If you have a 'well upholstered rear' and need a drug injection, the drugs may not penetrate the muscle properly, new Irish research has found. Doctors at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin have found that some patients have so much fleshy tissue on their buttocks that injections cannot properly penetrate the muscle. The researchers found that women, particularly obese women, were most likely not to get the full dose of the drug if injected into the buttocks. Dr Victoria Chan, the lead researcher of the study, said the research team demonstrated that a majority of people, especially women, do not get the proper dosage from injections to their buttocks. She said there is no question that obesity is the underlying cause. "We have identified a new problem related in part to the increasing amount of fat in patients’ buttocks." Many injections are administered through injections into the muscles of the buttocks, including painkillers, vaccines and contraceptives. They are a common alternative when patients cannot swallow oral medications, are fasting for a procedure or have a metabolic disorder that inhibits the absorption of orally ingested medication. Dr Chan said their research showed, however, that 68% of intramuscular injections do not reach the muscles of the buttock. "The amount of fat tissue overlying the muscles exceeds the length of the needles commonly used for these injections," she said. Because fat tissue has significantly fewer blood vessels relative to muscle, less of the medication is absorbed into the bloodstream and delivered to the appropriate part of the body. Dr Chan proposes that longer needle length is required to increase the success rate of intramuscular injections. The other authors of the research paper were Drs Jane Colvillle, Orla Buckley, Samuel Hamilton, Thara Persaud and William Torreggiani. The research was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).