Obesity and Intramuscular Injections: A Serious Health Problem?

Another risk has been added to the list of medical hazards faced by patients who are categorized as being obese. As well as being more susceptible to contracting diabetes, heart disease, joint problems and even certain types of cancer, the seriously overweight are less likely to benefit from needed medications such as vaccinations and intramuscular injections. Research from a team based at Adelaide and the Meath Hospital in Dublin revealed some disturbing results after studying 50 obese patients who attended their hospital for a pelvic and abdominal CT scan. The study was presented as an abstract at a conference of the Radiological Society of America, held in Chicago in November of 2009.

While a certain degree of caution should be exercised when interpreting the findings – the team announced that their study is a preliminary one and has not been reviewed and published in peer-reviewed publications – some very obvious trends were nonetheless easily discernible. The 50 patients were divided equally between men and women. All gave their consent to receiving an intramuscular injection in the upper quadrant of their buttocks with a conventional 23-guage needle. A tiny air bubble introduced by the injection was then tracked by two independent radiologists. Among the 25 overweight female patients, a staggering 23 (92%) of the injections remained in the adipose tissue, failing to reach muscle. 11 of the 25 injections administered to the overweight men (44%) also failed to reach muscle. The overall failure rate for both sexes was 68%.

Fatty tissue contains far fewer blood vessels than muscle, and is therefore ill-equipped to efficiently distribute any medication injected into it. The effect is that medicines administered in this way are likely to be far less clinically effective amongst obese patients. These patients will simply not be receiving the proper doses. The greater failure rate among female patients is accounted for by the fact that fatty tissue in the buttock area does seem to be thicker and the muscle less pronounced in women than in men.

The failure to reach muscle tissue can clearly have major negative health implications for obese patients and, with obesity on the rise, an alarming number of patients are likely to be at risk of receiving essentially ineffective treatment – the medications are not the issue, rather the method of administration is. Additional complicating factors are that the injections may not only fail to deliver pharmacological benefits but may even be detrimental – they can cause painful local irritation and infection in the fatty tissue, which can lead to a series of further medical complications.

The team suggests that as there is a significantly greater risk that medicines injected into the buttocks of obese patients will fail to reach muscle tissue, physicians should adopt the practice of using longer needles, especially as pertains to injecting obese women. Many medicines can only be effectively administered through intramuscular injection, so this suggestion, as simple as it sounds, could be of considerable benefit to overweight patients in the future.

Can't get rid of your stubborn belly bulge? Are you looking for a balanced plan to reach and maintain the image that you crave? Click Here to get access to Vince Delmonte's solid fitness tips as well as highly practical advice. Click here for UltraFitnessDynamics Review of Vince Delmontes' Six Pack Quest program.