Microneedle, micropain….we hope!

When you visit the doctor you know that you are going to get some serious medicine when the needles come out. The good news with this is that it will be powerful stuff, the bad news is that the needles are always huge. Well, maybe not always huge. There are in fact just three sizes of needle used in medicine; large, huge and oh-my-god-get-that-thing-away-from-me!

So I’m sure that lots of people will be delighted with the work recently done by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology; the microneedle.

Microneedle patches have been used to give people the equivalent of a flu jab. They look like sticking plasters with a surface like sandpaper. And it’s on this surface that the magic happens. It feels rough because it is covered with hundreds of tiny needles that can penetrate the skin and then dissolve, releasing the flu vaccine. How easy is that?

So no scary needles, and you won’t need a trained medic to administer the vaccine. The only downside is that it’s so painless that you probably won’t get  a sticker saying that you’ve been a brave boy……and I shall miss that.

“Oh please, just man-up!”

But aren’t we just getting soft? How bad can a needle be? Well have a look at this and then decide!

A classic bit of medical needlework is the IV drip. In this video the idea is to put fluids directly into the vein. It’s not always about putting fluids in though; sometimes fluids, like blood, need to be taken out. This isn’t always as easy as it looks though, and is really dangerous if you haven’t been trained.

Sometimes this draining business isn’t always on a small scale. If you have  a large build-up of fluid you need to drain a lot of stuff.

Sometimes people choose to have injections for lifestyle reasons. Do your high heels hurt? Well there’s a shot for that.

This stuff is dangerous in the wrong hands, but it’s still got to be pretty easy hasn’t it? I mean, stabbing someone in a big, fat arm can’t be all that tough. What about injecting into the roof of someone’s mouth (the pallet)? Or what about pulling the fluid out of someone’s spine…..look at the size of the needle…..that’s got to hurt! Or a personal favourite of mine, the injection into the eye. You can’t even look away….arghhhh!!!

In all these cases I’m afraid that microneedles aren’t going to help. Still, it’s great news that one day we may be able to avoid the fully fledged hypodermic for vaccines at least. And to be honest there may be times when the old-fashioned needle is preferable anyway. Think about that last one. A traditional injection with a needle? Or having a sticking plaster made of sandpaper slapped over the front of your eyeball? You decide! I’m running off the hide my head under a pillow while I whimper a lot.

Read the original article at Microneedles may make getting flu shots easier