Multiple injection regimens

Patients using multiple injection regimens have a once or twice daily injection of long or intermediate acting insulin respectively and 3 to 4 injections of short acting insulin before meals. The short acting injections are given using a pen-injector which allows repeated measured dose injections from dedicated insulin cartridges.

Multiple injection regimens have a number of advantages and disadvantages:

• disadvantages:
  • multiple injections. Often 6 per day
  • such an intensive regimen reqires frequent blood glucose analysis
    
    
• advantages:
  • flexibility of size and timing of meals.
  • pen-injectors mean that dosage errors when drawing up insulin are eliminated. Because of this pen-injectors are of particular value in the elderly. This usefullness is extended by the availibility of insulin cartridges containing pre-mixed short and intermediate acting insulins. An elderly patient can, using such cartridges, avoid the risk of dosage errors incured during mixing insulins in a single syringe