You’ve probably had an intramuscular (IM) injection at some point in your life—a flu shot, for example. In that case, a doctor or nurse gave it to you. However, some people need to learn to do it themselves. Some diseases, like severe cases of multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis, require weekly IM shots.
If you need to give somebody an IM injection –or yourself, this post will show you the right way to do it.
Why intramuscular?
Using an intramuscular route might seem unnecessary. Why go through the pain and inconvenience of a needle when you could use a pill?
First, some drugs and medications don’t come as a pill. Second, IM administration is faster, and its effect is more powerful.
Have you ever cut yourself so deep that it ripped through muscle? If you did, you probably bled a lot. Muscles bleed a lot because they are very rich in blood vessels. That’s a bad thing if you get stabbed, but it’s a great thing for IM shots. Once you inject the drug into your muscle, it enters your bloodstream almost immediately.
IM injections are more powerful than a pill, too. When you take a pill, the drug has to go through your liver first. There, your liver washes off part of the drug–the same thing it does with alcohol or other drugs. When you get an IM injection, 100% of the drug makes it through, skipping the liver.
Who needs an IM injection?
We use IM:
- to treat some serious infections (like syphilis) with antibiotics such as penicillin G, streptomycin…
- for vaccines
- to treat some tough cases of multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis
- to administer hormones like testosterone
- for some emergencies. When a person has a severe allergic reaction, their airways can close abruptly. In that case, they need adrenaline, and the fastest way is through an IM shot in the leg (in movies, it’s in the heart, but only in movies).
How to do it
The most common places are the shoulder, butt, and leg. There are some big muscles there: deltoid, gluteus, and quadriceps.
If you need to inject yourself or some friend, I recommend the gluteal muscle (your butt). You need to aim for the most lateral and anterior part. That way, you will avoid the sciatic nerve, which runs below the posterior side. Hitting your sciatic nerve is very painful, so you want to steer clear of it.
Another good option is the lateral side of your thigh. Aim for the outer part in the middle third of your thigh–not too close to the knee or your groin.
You should aim at the following areas:
The steps
Once you know where you will stick the needle, you can start.
First, prepare everything you will need and wash your hands. Then, clean the injection site with an antiseptic solution or alcohol pads.
Fill the syringe with your medication. This can sometimes be tricky, and you may need to inject some air into the vial. Inject the same volume of air as the dose you will remove. That will make it easier for you to take up the medication. Then, make sure there are no air bubbles inside your syringe. If there are, you can remove them by placing the syringe upside down (the bubbles will go up) and pressing the plunger just a bit.
Hold the needle like a dart and insert it into the muscle at a right angle. Then, press the plunger to release the medication inside your muscle.
the plunger while you insert it.
Remove the needle and throw it away in a special container. Don’t try to cover it again using the cap–you will puncture yourself.
What if it goes wrong?
If you follow the previous steps, there should be no complications. However, if you are not a doctor/nurse, you may make a mistake at some point.
If you hit a blood vessel, you will bleed. Don’t worry; you can’t reach a large artery with such a small needle. You will just get a bruise, nothing too serious.
If you hit some nerve, you will feel pain. Hitting a nerve feels different, an unpleasant kind of pain. Have you ever hit your funny bone on your elbow? That’s how it feels to hit a nerve. If you hit the sciatic nerve on your gluteus, you will feel electric pain going down your leg. Because the needle is so thin, it will usually go away after a while with no permanent damage.
If you forget to clean the area and it is dirty, you may get an infection. In that case, you’ll need some antibiotics.
If you suspect something went wrong, call your doctor or healthcare professional. They will tell you if you need to go to the hospital or if you can treat it at home.
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