Effects of changing needles prior to administering heparin subcutaneously

Objectives: To determine if changing needles before administering subcutaneous heparin would cause less ecchymosis at the injection site. Design: A quantitative study. Setting: A large northeastern, urban, nonprofit, tertiary medical center. Outcome Measures: A measurement of ecchymosis was obtained 48 hours after injection of heparin on the right side of the abdomen, where the needle was changed before injection. A second measurement was obtained 48 hours after injection on the left side of the abdomen, where the needle was not changed before injection. A comparison was then made of the two measurements. Results: The Student t test for related samples was used, and the significance was set at P <.05. The mean size of the ecchymoses for the sites where the needle was changed was 5.16 mm, and the mean size of the ecchymoses for the sites where the needle was not changed was 5.44 mm (P =.87). Conclusion: Changing the needle before the administration of subcutaneous heparin did not decrease the size of ecchymoses as compared with the size to the size of ecchymoses when the investigator did not change the needle. (Heart Lung® 2000;29:70-5)