Retreat of the Gluteus Maximus

No one enjoys getting an injection, but think how much worse it would be to know that it wasn’t getting to where it can do most good. Intramuscular injections into the buttocks are often chosen so as to get the drug into the blood stream efficiently using a site where there relatively few nerves, so that the shot is less painful.

The problem is that many women (and some men) aren’t getting the full benefit of intramuscular injections, because increased thickness of the fat under the skin is putting the gluteus maximus muscle out of reach.

Fifty patients at a hospital in Dublin, Ireland, volunteered to help with the investigation. They were each given an intramuscular injection in the buttocks with a standard 23-guage (1.25 inches) needle. In the women, 23/25 or 92% of the injections failed to reach the muscle on CT scan. In the men, 11/25 or 44% failed to reach the muscle. It seems that the obesity epidemic is associated with another ill-effect.

The solution - until obesity is a thing of the past?  Use a longer needle.